Why, that's the inside of the long-shuttered Johnie's coffee shop at Wilshire and Fairfax, in this recent AT&T ad still getting play on nationwide TV.
Closed since 2000, Johnie's -- now owned by the family behind the 99 Cents Stores (which has a location next door and uses Johnie's parking lot) -- remains a popular spot for filming. The building itself is showing more wear and tear, which makes me worry that eventually the owners will decide to just tear it down. (There's been some concern that Johnie's will be in trouble once the subway reaches Fairfax, but we've been promised that the proposed station wouldn't endanger Johnie's, even though it's the empty building at that intersection.)
It seems unlikely now that Johnie's Wilshire (which opened in 1955 as "Romeo's Times Square") will ever re-open, although we put forth this proposal that the 99 Cents Only company utilize the building as a 99 Cents Only diner.
(Flickr pic by Usonian.)
We were last inside Johnie's on Wilshire back in 2005, when the L.A. Conservancy held its original "Curating the City: Wilshire Boulevard" tour. (Read all about it here.) A few pics I took at the time from inside:
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