Alice’s Restaurant was immortalized by American folk singer Arlo Guthrie in 1967. The song and album Alice's Restaurant was a protest about the Vietnam War draft in the form of a comically exaggerated but largely true story from Guthrie's own life: he is arrested and convicted of dumping trash illegally, which later endangers his suitability for the military draft.

Guthrie’s friend Alice Brock opened her restaurant in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1966, and it was actually called The Back Room. Situated under the studios of the famous artist Norman Rockwell, it closed a few months before the song was released.

But the phrase in the song "You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant" caught on and in the 1970s three franchised Alice’s Restaurants opened in Westwood Village, Monterey and on Malibu Pier. 

The elaborate and beautifully designed menu depicted flower power, the slogan used during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance, non-violence and opposition to the Vietnam War.

The Malibu outpost was particularly popular with surfers and with Hollywood stars including Elizabeth Taylor, Rod Steiger, Cher and Arnold Schwarzenegger. All the California outposts had closed by 1982.

Courtesy Private Collection.