12 California Restaurants We'll Never Eat At Again

The first Brown Derby closed in 1980, and its giant hat is still sitting on top of a Koreatown mini-mall on Wilshire Boulevard. That's number one on this list. We counted down 12 California restaurants that are gone for good and tracked down where each one ended up: a Doggie Diner head on Sloat Boulevard, Ernie's dining room preserved in Vertigo, Chasen's booths inside a Bristol Farms, and a Pacific Dining Car kitchen found intact under the wreckage of two fires. The full list: Doggie Diner, Ships Coffee Shop, the Velvet Turtle, Blum's, Spenger's Fresh Fish Grotto, Ernie's, Pup 'n' Taco, Romanoff's, Sambo's, Chasen's, the Pacific Dining Car and the Brown Derby. We've covered Pup 'n' Taco and Sambo's in full videos of their own. This one picks up what those missed, including a correction on the Pup 'n' Taco trademark. Subscribe to Yesterday's Brands:    / @yesterdaysbrands   I encourage you all to let me know in the comments of any chains/brands/restaurants that you'd like to see covered. Sources: Los Angeles Times (1984, 1986), San Francisco Chronicle (1995), SFGate (Al Ross obituary, 2010; Victor Gotti obituary), Western Neighborhoods Project / OutsideLands, Los Angeles Conservancy, Alison Martino / Los Angeles Magazine, InMenlo (Stanford Daily review, 1982), Tasting Table (2025), Los Angeles Explorers Guild (2021), Palm Springs Life (2022, 2026), Nob Hill Gazette, The New Fillmore (2023), Yasukochi's Sweet Stop, Berkeley Daily Planet, Berkeleyside, East Bay Times, The Daily Californian (2018), CBS San Francisco (2018), US Patent and Trademark Office records via Justia, Food Republic, Martin Turnbull, KEYT (2020), UPI (1984), Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University, SoCal Landmarks (2023), I Am Not a Stalker (2017), Los Angeles Magazine (2020), KTLA, LAist and CBS Los Angeles (2025), Esotouric (2025), Disney Parks and D23, LA Almanac, PBS SoCal.