Roberts Brothers was a small chain of five drive-in restaurants spread throughout metropolitan Los Angeles, with the catchy logo ‘dishing it out since 1900.’
The business started with a simple sandwich stand on Western and Pico, on land that was mostly surrounded by bean fields.
In the 1920s, there were only 150 gas stations in Los Angeles but by the early 1930s, there were 1500 gas stations. Drive-in restaurants became all the rage as more Americans took to the roads across the USA.
The sandwich stand became a fully-fledged drive-in called the Pico and also had a counter restaurant.
The Roberts brothers opened the Wilshire in 1931 and then followed the Hollywood, the Burbank and the Sepulveda.
This establishment, according to adverts in newspapers at the time, was described as ‘the queen of all car-service restaurants, offering the last word in modern restaurant appointments.
‘To see it,’ the ad continued, ‘is to fall in love with its many-sided services – café, restaurant, cantina, cocktail bar, counter and drive-in.’
The buildings were designed by Wayne McAllister, the revered architect who was a leader in the Googie style of architecture that incorporated the automobile and the Space Age. Photographs of the drive-íns show saucer-shaped main buildings, surrounded by cars, and lit up by marvelous neon signs at night.
We’re not sure of the date of closure of the Roberts Brothers chain but think it probably lasted until the 1950s… not a bad run for any business