Tom Breneman's/Ah Fong's - Locating Tiki

BB Bora Boris Mr. Unreasonable Boogie Wonderland Joined: Mar 25, 2005 Posts: 2592	BB Bora Boris Posted posted on Mon, Jan 12, 2009 7:00 PM On 2009-01-07 11:14, congawa wrote: While we're on the subject, there was another Asian-American film actor from that same period who had a restaurant: Philip Ahn, who was Korean but frequently played Japanese-American spies and soldiers in World War II era movies (when of course genuine Japanese-American actors were locked up in internment camps). His place was the Moongate Restaurant in Panorama City (north San Fernando Valley) which had a cool industrial mid-century modern look: Congawa thank you for finding that picture in Dogwelder's Flickr account and Dogwelder thank you for finding it in the LA Public Library archives. I know that the photo archive can cause headaches on occasion. Phil Ahn's Moongate is on a list of places I've found in old L.A. phone books that I've been meaning to check out. Here is an ad from 1959. It looks as if the statue in the "Porthole" is their logo. The "Porthole" is actually the Moongate. I'd still like to see the inside even though it's been 50 years! So maybe I'll stop by the La Sierra Nightclub and see although the reviews I've read say to stay away and it looks like their doing a new Grand Opening this month so if there were any remnants of the "Charming Oriental Setting" left it's probably toast. I also agree with Arriano that your pictures are great Dogwelder and that other examples of before and after photos most notably the Then and Now series from Thunder Bay Press are awful to the point where you think “Did you even slow your car down to take this picture?” :) However Pete Moruzzi’s Havana Before Castro is an excellent example of before and after photography, Pete nails it.

On 2009-01-07 11:14, congawa wrote:
While we're on the subject, there was another Asian-American film actor from that same period who had a restaurant: Philip Ahn, who was Korean but frequently played Japanese-American spies and soldiers in World War II era movies (when of course genuine Japanese-American actors were locked up in internment camps). His place was the Moongate Restaurant in Panorama City (north San Fernando Valley) which had a cool industrial mid-century modern look:

Congawa thank you for finding that picture in Dogwelder's Flickr account and Dogwelder thank you for finding it in the LA Public Library archives. I know that the photo archive can cause headaches on occasion. Phil Ahn's Moongate is on a list of places I've found in old L.A. phone books that I've been meaning to check out. Here is an ad from 1959. It looks as if the statue in the "Porthole" is their logo. The "Porthole" is actually the Moongate.

I'd still like to see the inside even though it's been 50 years! So maybe I'll stop by the La Sierra Nightclub and see although the reviews I've read say to stay away and it looks like their doing a new Grand Opening this month so if there were any remnants of the "Charming Oriental Setting" left it's probably toast.

I also agree with Arriano that your pictures are great Dogwelder and that other examples of before and after photos most notably the Then and Now series from Thunder Bay Press are awful to the point where you think “Did you even slow your car down to take this picture?” :) However Pete Moruzzi’s Havana Before Castro is an excellent example of before and after photography, Pete nails it.

Post #428446 by Bora Boris on Mon, Jan 12, 2009 7:00 PM