{"id":494651,"date":"2026-10-13T12:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T12:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/494651\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T12:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T12:52:10","slug":"route-66-landmark-mels-drive-in-faces-demolition-can-it-be-saved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/494651\/","title":{"rendered":"Route 66 landmark Mel’s Drive-In faces demolition. Can it be saved?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For decades, the bold, mid-century building at Lincoln and Olympics boulevards in Santa Monica has been the end of the line \u2014 the last address on the 2,400-mile westward journey of Route 66. Once home to the Penguin Coffee Shop, today it holds Mel\u2019s Drive-In. But now its future is in doubt. <\/p>\n

The owners of the property have filed early paperwork to level the structure and replace it with an eight-story apartment building. Preservationists are pushing for a historic designation that might protect it.<\/p>\n

The groups appear headed toward a showdown Dec. 14, when the Santa Monica Landmarks Commission will hold a hearing on the site\u2019s nomination for protected status by the Santa Monica Conservancy<\/a> and the Los Angeles Conservancy. The allied conservancies contend that the building is \u201cthe most significant representation of its style and period in architecture and design in Santa Monica.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Archival <\/p>\n

Designed by famed mid-century architects Armet & Davis, the building held the Penguin Coffee Shop from 1959 through 1991.<\/p>\n

(Architects Armet Davis \/ Santa Monica Public Library Image Archives)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about saving a modern restaurant. It\u2019s about preserving some really important Googie architecture,\u201d said Nina Fresco, vice president of Santa Monica Conservancy. She added that \u201cthere\u2019s no reason why housing and historic preservation can\u2019t be partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irvine-based firm ValueRock Realty bought the half-acre Mel\u2019s property for $6.2 million in 2020, and in 2025 began offering the property for sale, asking $26 million<\/a> through brokers Newmark Pacific. <\/p>\n

Soon after learning that the building was for sale, the Santa Monica and L.A. conservancies nominated Mel\u2019s for a landmark designation, which can protect buildings from demolition, Fresco said. As part of the effort, Santa Monica Conservancy leaders raised $6,800, the cost of a Santa Monica landmark nomination, and enlisted the L.A. Conservancy as an ally.<\/p>\n

Then on Sept. 18, ValueRock filed a preliminary application with the city (also known as an SB330 application) to replace the 1959 building with an eight-story apartment building, including 138 apartments, 123 parking spaces and first-floor retail space.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The sign of Mel\u2019s Drive-In features a penguin, homage to the coffee shop of yesteryear. <\/p>\n

(David Fouts \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

When it bought the property in 2020, ValueRock announced that it \u201cis considered to be a historical landmark within the community<\/a>.\u201d But in its September filing for the apartment project, ValueRock management checked a box indicating that no historic or cultural resources are known to exist on the property.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know they would be quite this aggressive, but it\u2019s not a huge surprise,\u201d Fresco said.<\/p>\n

Under city law, Fresco said, if a property is more than 40 years old, the owner must wait at least 75 days after seeking a demolition permit before any demolition can happen. \u201cSo we\u2019re OK at least until that hearing\u201d in December, Fresco said.<\/p>\n

If the Landmark Commission agrees to confer landmark status on the building, Fresco said, it may be shielded from demolition \u2014 but the owner can appeal the decision to the City Council.<\/p>\n

Management at ValueRock Realty did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The restaurant remains open, receiving a steady stream of locals and Route 66 travelers. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be here until 2029,\u201d said Marilina Borchio, manager of Mel\u2019s, citing a lease that runs through June of that year. As she spoke, the breakfast crowd was trickling in on Sunday morning. Borchio said she\u2019s spending a lot of time reassuring customers who \u201cthink we are going to be demolished tomorrow night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Googie-style building, designed by famed mid-century architects Armet & Davis, held the Penguin Coffee Shop from 1959 through 1991, catching the eyes of passing drivers with its dramatically slanted roof, oversize windows and a long counter inside for diners in a hurry. Architectural historians describe Googie style as a bold strain of Mid-Century Modernism, notable for big neon signs and swooping roofs, especially popular among restaurants, bowling alleys and car washes, now increasingly rare. Rae\u2019s Diner<\/a>, a 1958 building on Pico Boulevard, is another Santa Monica example.<\/p>\n

The coffee shop never earned a Michelin star (nor has Mel\u2019s) but its workaday American fare won a following. \u201cThe Penguin gets my vote for the best diner around,\u201d wrote Times restaurant critic Charles Perry in 1989.<\/a> <\/p>\n

But two years later, the Penguin was gone. By 1992, the building had been converted into a dentist\u2019s office. Eventually it fell idle, until the San Francisco-based Mel\u2019s chain arrived in 2016 and began a renovation aimed at bringing back the restaurant\u2019s \u201950s atmosphere. <\/p>\n

\"Mel's <\/p>\n

Mel\u2019s Drive-In now occupies the old Penguin Coffee Shop building at the official end of Route 66 in Santa Monica. <\/p>\n

(Christopher Reynolds \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The renewed restaurant opened in 2018, with a penguin atop its sign, in homage to years gone by.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the neon elements are gone, but the main elements are still there,\u201d said the Santa Monica Conservancy\u2019s Fresco, who is also a Santa Monica planning commissioner and former landmarks commissioner.<\/p>\n

The renovation and restoration effort included removing layers of paint and tile that had been added over decades, revealing interior stone cladding that had been covered and replicating the counter and stools, vinyl cushioned booths, tables of plastic and metal, terrazzo floor, and light fixtures. The work was \u201cto the letter of the Secretary of the Interior\u2019s standards\u201d for the treatment of historic properties, Fresco said.<\/p>\n

The building is not mentioned in \u201cAn Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles,\u201d by David Gebhard and Robert Winter, which is a prime source for many preservationists. But Mel\u2019s won a $10,000 grant<\/a> from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2025 to pay for Route 66 centennial signage project.<\/p>\n

\"Route <\/p>\n

Route 66 memorabilia at Mel\u2019s Drive-in.<\/p>\n

(David Fouts \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis site, like Route 66 itself, represents something greater than itself,\u201d said Rhys Martin, manager of the National Trust\u2019s Preserve Route 66 initiative, in an email. \u201cIt\u2019s a connection to a journey through time and space that will be forever lost if this remarkable Googie structure is demolished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fresco said she\u2019d love to see the building continue to operate as Mel\u2019s, but in the big picture, \u201cwe can\u2019t stop them from building housing.\u201d Still, Fresco said, she is hoping that the owner can come up with a project that retains the existing building while adding housing around it, as several other developers in Santa Monica have done. At 829 Broadway, developers agreed to preserve a World War II era Quonset hut while building a five-story apartment building around it. (The Quonset hut was occupied by Pono Burger from 2013 to 2025.) And the old Rapp Saloon \u2014 an 1875 brick building at 1436 2nd Street \u2014 was reborn in the late 1980s as a meeting space within a four-story hostel, now known as Hostelling International\u2019s HI Los Angeles Santa Monica Hostel<\/a>. The Santa Monica Conservancy begins its walking tours<\/a> there.<\/p>\n

If the allied conservancies win landmark status for the Penguin\/Mel\u2019s building, Fresco said, the owners \u201cwill be able to do exactly what they want to do now. They will just have to do it differently.\u201d <\/p>\n

Route 66, which was born and officially named U.S. Highway 66 on Nov. 11, 1926, was extended to Santa Monica in 1935. Though many travelers think of the Santa Monica Pier as the end of the route, its official terminus from 1935 on was at the intersection of Lincoln and Olympic boulevards, where Mel\u2019s now stands.<\/p>\n

Though Route 66 was decommissioned in the 1980s, its popularity as an Americana-rich driving route has grown in recent years, especially during this year\u2019s centennial celebration of the road.<\/p>\n

By the time the coffee shop building was going up at the end of the route in 1959, Fresco said, interstate freeways were already beginning to usurp Route 66\u2019s role and the Santa Monica route of Interstate 10 had been plotted. By putting their eye-catching building on a spot along Route 66 and next to the path of the freeway, Fresco said, the people behind the Penguin were catering to motorists on roads rooted in two different eras.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Catholic Church shaped Rome. Commerce shaped Manhattan. It is popular culture that has shaped L.A.,\u201d architecture critic Alan Hess told a Times reporter in 1993. \u201cWe should see these buildings in that context and take them seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades, the bold, mid-century building at Lincoln and Olympics boulevards in Santa Monica has been the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4188,23637,39352,192358,48,52,51,192354,47,50,49,192356,192353,1831,71596,192357,7215,10807,8267,192355,72],"class_list":["post-494651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-building","tag-demolition","tag-diner","tag-eight-story-apartment-building","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-landmark-mel","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-modern-restaurant","tag-nina-fresco","tag-owner","tag-penguin","tag-penguin-coffee-shop","tag-property","tag-route","tag-santa-monica","tag-santa-monica-conservancy","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}