40 Once-Popular American Diners That Are No Longer Around

During the drive-in restaurant craze of the 1950s, if you opened a restaurant that didn’t have a place for customers to park their cars, you would have missed out on a tremendous amount of business. Johnie’s Broiler is the second generation name of Harvey’s Broiler, a burger joint that was all the rage in Downey, California, in the 1950s and 1960s.

Johnie’s Broiler didn’t so much as close down as it was renamed once again. Thanks to pop culture’s continuous reference to it, the boogie-style coffee shop’s third-generation name is a little more familiar. By 2009, the broiler was part of the Big Boy chain and was renamed Bob’s Big Boy Broiler.