Dew Drop Inn (1 Viewer)

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
Hey, does anyone know if the Dew Drop Inn, Linda's health food restaurant in Redondo Beach, still exists? I visited there a couple times right after WOMEN came out. Maybe this is covered in one of the documenetary films. I haven't seen them all.

You'll love this: my wife went there once, early on, while I was at work. She bought a full run of LAUGH LITERARY AND MAN THE HUMPING GUNS for issue price. They were in a rack like any current magazine, for the patron's use. Even then they were worth much more than she paid for them.
 
I lived in Redondo Beach for three of four years, and went back recently to watch some junior high kids do a poetry "slam" (long story, but a funny evening). The place has changed a lot in the dozen or so years since I left, so I doubt much from the 70's has survived. I would think that when Linda closed the Dew Drop Inn it became something else within a week. Most of Southern California is like that.
 
mjp. Thanks for the update. If Redondo Beach has changed that much in a dozen years, the old Dew Drop Inn is likely long gone. I wonder what the building is used for now, if it even exists any more. I have some snapshots of the Inn during the early days. The address is 211 but I don't recall what street it's on. I'd love to see what it looks like now. Maybe I'll have my wife look for the site the next time she's down in the L.A. area.

David
 
Maybe the address is on one of the hand lettered (by Bukowski) menus you see from time to time. Anyone have one of those? Heh. That's like a rhetorical question in here...

Linda was talking about the original menu, I think she still has it. Very large, and they reduced it when they copied it to make the menus. When a price changed they would just cover it with white-out on the original, write in the new price, and go get copies made.

So for all of you Dew Drop Inn menu collectors, there are several variants. ;)
 
You read my mind about the menu. I was about to ask if anyone could post an image of it. I had one (past tense) and remember it was hand-written with drawings by Bukowski, legal sized, xeroxed. Like a fool I sold mine. I've never seen another, although I haven't really tried to find one. Please somebody!
 
How's this? Not a menu, but a business card.

And now?
 

Attachments

  • dewdrop.jpg
    dewdrop.jpg
    67.8 KB · Views: 601
Cool! So we have the address. Someone in the L.A. area could drive by there and let us know what, if anything, is left of the Dew Drop Inn.

Here's the thought I woke up with: the "original" menus were photocopies. Obviously, if someone photocopies one of those, the result is not an original as far as a collector is concerned. Does it matter when they made the copy? If they made the copy back then, is it any more original? I probably should have made a copy or two, if just for myself. I didn't. Not that clever. An unscrupulous person could get rich with Bukowski and a copy machine. Not that I'm trying to give anyone any ideas. But how would a collector know the difference? Old paper? You can pick it up by the ream in thrift shops. Just wondering.
 
Well, it's not a parking lot yet: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=...389,-118.38773&spn=0.001061,0.002704&t=h&om=1

People have sold, or tried to sell, copies of letters on eBay. But buried deep in the description was the admission that it was a copy. Someone wouldn't know the difference if the item was originally Xeroxed (not the case with letters, of course), so a meticulous person could indeed reproduce something like, oh, I don't know, Laugh Literary and Man the Humping guns, Me and Your Sometimes Love Poems, or any number of originally Xeroxed Bukowski rarities. Same with the signed books and magazines. I don't think Bukowski has been "famous" enough until pretty recently for people to bother forging his signature and reproducing his stuff. But who knows. I know I've seen at least one forged signature on eBay.
 
Google Earth is like a spy satellite for the masses. Reminds me of the title of that old Phil Dick pulp SF novel, EYE IN THE SKY. Great that the building still stands. My wife says she'll check it out and take some photos when she's in L.A. this summer.

I don't think Bukowski has been "famous" enough until pretty recently for people to bother forging his signature and reproducing his stuff. But who knows. I know I've seen at least one forged signature on eBay.

I'd say he's been famous enough for that since the 60s or 70s, although he's many more times famous now than, say, ten years ago. All the films have turned him into a celebrity. But I'd guess there's been a lot of reproduced items and faked signatures all along, because there's ready money for his stuff. When I began selling rare books by mail order in the 80s, I sold every Buk item I listed. Very little else sold, besides the Beats. But Bukowski ALWAYS sold. With that kind of demand, I'm sure there were lots of fakes sold. The signature thing is scary. Someone with artistic talent and no ethics could turn a cheap Black Sparrow paperback into a valuable book. The fact that Buk often used heavy black felt tip marker makes him that much easier to forge. There's no subtly of ink flow like you'd have with a fountain pen...easy to fake, at least in my opinion.
 
Okay, here's a couple snapshots of the Dew Drop Inn, taken right after WOMEN was published and we learned that Linda owned the place.

David Barker
 

Attachments

  • DewDropInn1Copyright.jpg
    DewDropInn1Copyright.jpg
    53.2 KB · Views: 602
  • DewDropInn2Copyright.jpg
    DewDropInn2Copyright.jpg
    38.9 KB · Views: 574
Rekrab said:
You read my mind about the menu. I was about to ask if anyone could post an image of it. I had one (past tense) and remember it was hand-written with drawings by Bukowski, legal sized, xeroxed. Like a fool I sold mine. I've never seen another, although I haven't really tried to find one. Please somebody!

Nobody has it? Where is a copy? This must be seen!

SD
 
I'd love to see that menu. You know how it is...you take things for granted while they're happening. "Oh a menu for the Dew Drop Inn, drawn by Bukowski. I can get a few bucks for that." 28 years later, I'm dying to see it again, the lettering, his drawings, read what dishes Linda served, check the prices, fantasize about having lunch there. Come on, one of you collectors. Throw it on a scanner and give us a look. Please!
 
I have an image somewhere, I just haven't been able to find it. It's in a giant pile of stuff waiting to go onto the site...
 
mjp -- great! I'll be patient. For some reason, that menu means more to me than a signed hardback Black Sparrow Press book would. It evokes a time and place. Can't wait to see it, but wait I will.

David
 
Hi all, I'm a new member and long time BUK reader. I did some Internet sleuthing and found that 211 Avenida Del Norte is now "Chez Cherrel's Nail & Skin" (http://www.beautyshop-finder.com/listing-2382100/). I called and talked to the owner who said she's been there twenty years. She said she bought the shop from the women who owned it after Linda. She was really quite nice and did remember the Dew Drop Inn.
 
Rekrab said:
mjp -- great! I'll be patient. For some reason, that menu means more to me than a signed hardback Black Sparrow Press book would. It evokes a time and place. Can't wait to see it, but wait I will.

David

You can see the menu in "Sunlight here I am" by David Stephen Calonne (Sun Dog Press). It?s a book of Buk interviews. The menu from the Dew Drop Inn takes up the whole of page 260...
 
Fantastic! Thanks Bukefan and cirerita! Sunlight Here I Am is one of those newer Bukowski books I haven't yet bought. I gotta give up that cavalier attitude. Great to finally see that menu again. I'm going to blow it up huge and study it. I may post more photos of the Dew Drop Inn. Just need some time to scan them.

David
 
Thanks Bukefan and cirerita! Man, the "Tunacado" looks pretty dang good, I'm going to try to make one this weekend! Hey, for what it's worth, I came across this picture of Linda Lee and Marina in front of the Dew Drop the other day. I thought I would post it in case anyone hasn't seen it.
 

Attachments

  • bukowski_023.jpg
    bukowski_023.jpg
    32.1 KB · Views: 918
Yes, that's him. I had a picture of Baba in my hippie van way back when. He was all the rage. Great photo!

David
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top