[Snix]

Another one of those "Twin Castle" burger joints is still standing at 4874 Santa Monica Blvd. and is currently an outpost of Raffallo's Pizza. This one was built in 1966.

GSV

Originally Posted by riichkay

Getty/Ed Ruscha


7505 Melrose Ave., 1974....this is the building that for decades housed the Johnny Rockets retro-diner....in '74 it was a burger joint called Twin Castle.







In the "elbow" of this little center was a topless/bottomless bar that I knew as the Kit Kat Club....



In about 1977 I was working at 3rd and La Cienega, occasionally a buddy at the office and myself would drive over to this place for lunch....not much larger than a walk-in closet, a dark, dank, divey room, reeking of last night's cigarettes and desperation....to my eyes, the dancers (not really dancing as we know it, just a sort of disinterested shuffle) all appeared to be hard-core junkies....a reprehensible establishment, with no redeeming social value whatsoever....in other words, the place was perfect.   



By the mid-70's Eddie Nash, he of the Wonderland Ave./John Holmes carnage, controlled over 35 liquor licenses in Hollywood and environs, among these was a place called the Kit Kat Club...but that club was at 6550 Santa Monica Blvd., a couple of blocks west of Cahuenga (the building is gone now, the property is part of a Honda dealership)....









A 1970 permit for 6550 Santa Monica Blvd. listing the owner as Eddie Nash, using his birth name....  





A 1975 signage permit for the place on Melrose....




So there were two Kit Kat Clubs in business by '75....I think the likelihood is that Nash also owned the Melrose location.   


The laundromat and bar units are now combined into one restaurant space, and the parking has been removed....Johnny Rockets vacated in late 2015...