By Hector Gonzalez
Staff Writer

June 17, 2015 -- A City hired consultant charged by Santa Monica's Landmarks Commission with piecing together the history the old Callahan's Restaurant is getting valuable help from Mike Callahan, whose father opened his combination restaurant-bakery on Wilshire Boulevard some 40 years ago.

Property owner and restauranteur Robert Lynn, who is seeking landmark status for his building at 1213 Wilshire Boulevard, said he was contacted about six weeks ago by Mike Callahan, whose first-hand knowledge of the family business could fill in the historical blanks Commission members complained were missing from consultant PCR Service's assessment of the building's landmark application.

“We don't have a fully nuanced picture of the property,” said Commission Chair Margaret Bach. “I'm confused by the succession of the businesses.

“Usually a consultant's report will provide a list of businesses that used to occupy the property. The pairing of the bakery and the restaurant, in particular, is something I would've liked a bit more information about.”

While they generally approved of Lynn's plan's for the building and did not raise objections to modernizing the rear loading dock and parking area, Landmark Commissioners directed staff and the consultant to work with Lynn to come up with a more rounded picture of Callahan's past.

Commissioner Ruth Shari, however, favored approving staff's recommendation as is, although she also voted for improvements to the consultant's analysis, which eventually becomes part of the public record if the status is approved.

“The consultant can now go to the original source,” said Shari. “It shouldn't be too difficult to flesh out the findings.”

Lynn said he had assigned two of his employees to research the history of Callahan's but was making little headway until about a week before he opened his new restaurant, when “something amazing happened.”

“I got an email from Mike Callahan,” Lynn said. “It turns out that he lives in Oklahoma and his sister lives in northern San Diego. They actually came up to visit the restaurant the first week we opened, and I gave them the original 'Callahan's' sign that was standing on the roof as a gift.”

Along with clarifying the history of Callahan's, Mike Callahan provided “a bunch of” historic photos that Lynn gave to the Commission.

According to Callahan, the restaurant, originally The Groves, was named after owner, Art Grove, who opened the combination diner and bakery more than 40 years ago. But Grove was a baker at heart. Fed up with the diner side of the business, he sold out a year later to Mel and Charlotte Callahan, who operated it until they sold Callahan's in 1987, said Lynn.

Abraham Vasquez operated the restaurant from 1988 until last year, when he surrendered his lease. Lynn, who owns LGO Hospitality with Sara Abbott, purchased the building last year and opened Ingo's Tasty Diner at the address last month.

Built in 1946, the two-story building that once housed Callahan's is done in the Streamline Moderne architectural style, evoking “a sense of motion reminiscent of the advancements in automotive and aviation technology of the time,” said a staff report recommending approval of landmark status.

According to the recommendation, the building meets two of six criteria for landmark consideration: It exemplifies the “cultural, social, economic, political or architectural history of the City,” and it “embodies distinguishable architectural characteristics” worthy of study.

Although the building's designer is a mystery, the structure is a “rare, intact example of the Streamline Moderne-style diner” of the 1930s and '40s, said staff, adding that it embodies “the changing attitudes toward family dining as working-class families became more prosperous.”

Commissioner Dolores Sloan wanted to know why the building, according to staff, failed to meet the third criteria for landmark consideration: that it is identified with “historic personages.”

“This is Santa Monica. Surely there were some historic personages there,” said Sloan. “I thought Mae West ate there.”

Lynn said the Mae West story has become somewhat of a local legend. According to one story he heard, West never actually came into Callahan's.

“She had her limousine driver pull up and he got out,” said Lynn. “We hear stories like that all the time.”