SORRY TO SAY BIFF'S WAS RAZED IN FAVOR OF A 'HIPSTER HANGOUT' LAST OCTOBER, 2016- A remodelled Biff's would have been a popular Hipster and Millenial hangout, as architect Roy pointed out, but big money was burning a hole in some developers pocket and there you go. One less old soul left in Oakland
“It looks like it’s about ready to lift off.” —Victor Newlove, of Armet Davis Newlove Architects, in a 2011 interview with NPR
Biff’s Coffee Shop (1963–c.1995), at 315 27th Street in Oakland, CA was a “Googie”-style coffee shop designed by the Los Angeles architectural firm of Armet & Davis (dubbed “the Frank Lloyd Wrights of diner designers” by SF columnist Herb Caen). It was built in 1963 by Standard Oil (now Chevron) in combination with an adjacent gas station, on a triangular lot at the corner of 27th Street and Broadway. The restaurant was the firm’s only round restaurant, and its now-empty building is a rare surviving example of Googie architecture in the Bay Area. MORE courtesy Oakland Wiki
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| BIFF'S TODAY WITH RETIRED ARCHITECT JOYCE ROY |
And now a couple of old-school architects from the day who remember Biff's wanted to reopen and bring back TO LIFE the long-dormant historical .
gem to it's original glory, but this will now be old news (below) as the remarkable building many of us knew and loved was taken down last October after a long battle by old Oaklanders and preservationist to restore the one-of-a-kind building. MORE Turns out the original building was build by the family of 'Tiny' Naylors chain of Los Angeles coffee shops, so popular in the 1950s and 1960s, and, there were , reportedly, similar Bills-style round ones in Los Angeles. But, no more in the Oakland, Bay Area, to our knowledge
BIFF'S UFO-DESIGNED COFFEE SHOP May Be Ready to Take Off Again
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Gone are the green Naugahyde seats. Gone is the coleslaw with peanuts. Gone, too, is the flashing neon dotted "I," visible for miles in any direction.
But for those who love Biff's, Oakland's long-dormant 24-hour diner, hope never dies - it just gets sent back to the kitchen every now and then.
"The time is right to try again. Biff's is on the radar," said Joyce Roy, a retired architect who's among a stalwart band of Biff's buffs hoping and praying the shuttered diner finds a deep-pocketed developer to dust off its Formica tables and reopen it.
"A new Biff's would be a perfect fit for First Friday and all the other great things going on around here," she said. "It would be a huge draw, for everyone." CONTINUED FROM SF GATE
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| TODAY, THE TOP OF THE 'UFO' , GRAFFITI-COVERED BIFF'S AWAITS A SAVIOR TO BRING IT BACK TO ITS DAYS OF GLORY. CALL JOYCE ROY OR FRIENDS OF BIFF IF YOU MIGHT HELP. sEE BELOW LINKS TO PARTICIPATE AND CONTRIBUTE |
WE REMEMBER BIFF'S , TOO. AT THE TIME, WE PROBABLY DIDN'T APPRECIATE THE 'FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT' OF DINERS at the time, until it was shuttered in 1995. Afterall, there was still the kwik way, an even earlier (1960) drivein restaurant a few blocks away that seemed to get priority, and, of course, the merritt, though it didn't have the style of either biff's or Kwik way. the good news is that this classic restaurant somehow escaped the wrecking ball for the past two decades . Now it's just waiting for a caring owner to reopen it, which looks like biff's could 'take off' again, much like the restored paramount theater on broadway and the fox oakland on san pablo ave.
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| THE CLASSIC '50s sign with crossinging poles beckoned diners in the 1960s |
From Randy Garbin's Roadside #32 "Oakland Emerging":
"Biff's Coffee Shop, a circular restaurant designed by noted Googie-style architects Armet & Davis, opened in Oakland at the tail end of the "Populuxe" era. As defined by Thomas Hine in his book Populuxe, Googie fit into the post-war optimism that lasted until 1964, the final year of the New York World's Fair. Not long afterwards, America plunged into an orgy of Early American and Environmentalist design influences, leaving these odd space-age architectural anomalies to stand out in the landscape like crashed UFOs.
Biff's did a fine business into the 1980s when it eventually became J.J.'s Diner, but then closed after four more years of operation. In stepped Chevron Oil, which owned the property and planned to demolish the dowdy structure to erect a gas station/fast-food/quickie-mart mutation. Into the breach rushed about 50 concerned citizens mindful that Biff's had once served as an anchor for the local neighborhood. These activists reminded the city that the place represented one of the last coffee shops from this era and one of the few in the Bay Area. Calling themselves the Friends of J.J.'s, the group sought to help market this property to prospective restaurateurs looking to take advantage of the Oakland revitalization."
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"Supportive elements for the Biffs restaurant included a palm tree and signs (internally illuminated neo-60s on original crossed pole supports, replacing animated neon bullseye "Biff's" sign).
The Biff's/JJ's restaurant was vital to the livelihood of the Broadway Autorow community especially the senior citizens from several senior residential centers located on 28th Street."
Special thanks to Randy Garbin (www.randygarbin.com) and Charles Brown. These pieces originally appeared in Roadside Magazine and the Beat 8 newsletter, respectively.
"Biff's Coffee Shop, a circular restaurant designed by noted Googie-style architects Armet & Davis, opened in Oakland at the tail end of the "Populuxe" era. As defined by Thomas Hine in his book Populuxe, Googie fit into the post-war optimism that lasted until 1964, the final year of the New York World's Fair. Not long afterwards, America plunged into an orgy of Early American and Environmentalist design influences, leaving these odd space-age architectural anomalies to stand out in the landscape like crashed UFOs.
Biff's did a fine business into the 1980s when it eventually became J.J.'s Diner, but then closed after four more years of operation. In stepped Chevron Oil, which owned the property and planned to demolish the dowdy structure to erect a gas station/fast-food/quickie-mart mutation. Into the breach rushed about 50 concerned citizens mindful that Biff's had once served as an anchor for the local neighborhood. These activists reminded the city that the place represented one of the last coffee shops from this era and one of the few in the Bay Area. Calling themselves the Friends of J.J.'s, the group sought to help market this property to prospective restaurateurs looking to take advantage of the Oakland revitalization."
*
"Supportive elements for the Biffs restaurant included a palm tree and signs (internally illuminated neo-60s on original crossed pole supports, replacing animated neon bullseye "Biff's" sign).
The Biff's/JJ's restaurant was vital to the livelihood of the Broadway Autorow community especially the senior citizens from several senior residential centers located on 28th Street."
Special thanks to Randy Garbin (www.randygarbin.com) and Charles Brown. These pieces originally appeared in Roadside Magazine and the Beat 8 newsletter, respectively.
Links and References
- History Is Reborn As Downtown Oakland Booms / New life put into old buildings San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate
- Friends of Biff’s
- Biff’s Coffee Shop Dwell
- Biff(s) Bam Boom! Vote by 2/20 to Restore this Cultural Icon in Uptown UptownPlaceHomes.com
- Biff’s Coffee Shop Chevron Gasoline Oakland, CA FlickRiver.com
- A Salute to Biff’s Coffee Shop in Oakland The Dollar Store Diet
- Biff’s Diner: The Lost Googie of Oakland Findery — (Oakland Museum of California)
- Armet Davis Newlove Architects- Formerly ‘Armet & Davis’ — the design firm of Biff’s Coffee Shop
- Googie Architecture- A style of modern architecture dating from 1949
- Restoring Oakland’s Biff’s diner may be tall order SF Chronicle 2014-01-13
Check back to these pages AND HTTP://FACEBOOK.COM/OLDIESCOUNTRY for future updates/status of Biff's comeback
BIFF'S UFO-DESIGNED COFFEE SHOP May Be Ready to Take Off Again