Pann’s | Doo-Wop Design Coffee Shop | Los Angeles

Do-Wop Coffee Shop

Pann’s is a decorative crazy quilt. It combines the feel of a medieval grotto (ponderous stone walls), spaceship-boomerang panache, and plush tailfin Coup de Ville upholstery. In other words, come to Pann’s and you enter a prime example of what is known as Googie style, aka Doo-Wop design. This style thrived in mid 20th century America, especially in Southern California. And most especially, in its coffee shops.

Southern California Eating The Way It Used To Be

Like the place itself, the menu takes you back in time. Here you encounter such coffee shop standards as roast turkey with cornbread stuffing, liver & onions, chicken & waffles, mile-high layer cakes, and tapioca pudding. The broad repertoire includes steaks & chops, Greek salads and Cobb salads (which the menu reminds us are served chilled), six-slice BLTs, and triple-decker chicken club sandwiches. The house-specialty Dreemburger (“Made the same way since 1958”) comes in Sunday-go-to-meetin’-dressin’ packed into a brioche bun. It’s a vintage-SoCal paradigm.

Chicken and Biscuits … on the West Coast

“Original recipe” fried chicken comes enveloped in a dark gold crust as luxurious as crisp bacon. Have your side-dish mashed potatoes with white gravy, brown gravy, or country sausage gravy. Accompanying buttermilk biscuits come with butter and bubble packs of honey. Unlike fluffy southern-style biscuits, these dense pastry bricks pack plenty of weight. I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. Their avoirdupois is a style unto itself.

“May I Refill Your Coffee Cup?”

Beverages include milk shakes and malts, strawberry lemonade, and root beer floats. If you order coffee, the uniformed waitress corps will top it off approximately every 90 seconds.

Dining In Another Era’s Style

This is one of the greatest places to stop in LA if you appreciate doo-wop design.  There is no more stunning example of a mid-20th century West Coast coffee shop.