> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Do you remember Santa Monica’s Main Street? - URL: https://www.smdp.com/do-you-remember-santa-monicas-main-street/ - Published: 2002-07-27T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T00:34:24.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Opinion, Main St, #archive-import, Homeless *By Hank Rosenfeld* Do you remember… “Meet me at The Buttery,” for the greasiest croissants and most normal cup of coffee where Holy Guacamole is now? Wednesday’s Coffeehouse for cool folks, tea and sympathy, drugs smuggled down from the dentist’s office upstairs, and poetry as bad as anything at the Novel today? The bread trucks parked behind Pioneer Boulangerie? The Boulangerie? When Big Blue was 50 cents? Do you remember… Paul Conrad hanging out with Buzz Aldrin partying at Josh Needle’s Impolitic Cartoon Gallery? Quarterdeck Company at the corner of Pico and the bicycle shop below? “Man in the Moon,” “Rancho Loco” and “Stay Awake” on KCRW? CP Shades for 19 dollars and 95 cents? Do you remember… A drugstore or a bookstore or a record store? Finding bargains at the OP Library book sales? SMASH school on 4th and Ashland? The Santa Monica Trading Company where everything was overpriced but you could still enjoy thumbing through lobby cards from “The Trip” starring Jack Nicholson? Do you remember…. The boxes of vegetables piled high in the morning outside Panini Garden? The strong French country brew at Bamboo Café? When Doug Brudoff roamed the earth between the Novel and his station wagon like Kerouac staying in a room above the Carousel? Ordering up an “anti-aging Yin from the Cold” elixir at Java Zen? The Santa Monica Art Museum in Edgemar before the theater promised to come in? LA: The Bookstore in Edgemar where Paul Krassner recorded one of his first comedy albums and Ann Randolph developed solo shows? The architecture bookstore that followed LA: The Bookstore in Edgemar and the African art shop across the hall? Andy Kindler at Creativity on Pier Street, or the two galleries that followed it, the one run by Bill Attaway, the other by Rico who would throw you out on Bastille Day if you danced too crazily, with excuses like “Too much of the audience kept looking at you instead of the band?” Do you remember… The VIC (Venice Interactive Commune) at the Victorian, Thursday nights jammed with wild webhead women in de rigueur black skirts and drunk frat boys in nametags sneaking in without paying the $20 and selling an idea for a cartoon on the way out for $1000? Chess and Jazz in the space before The Malibu Surf Co. (fastest-abandoned boutique ever), moved in? Back when there were two competing trendy rip-off juicers, Robeks and Jamba a block apart? When businesses in the neighborhood were supported by the neighbors? The “female enhancer” for 50 cents extra, and the “male fortifier” for 75 cents extra at U.S. Smoothies near Joe’s Diner? Add both and you’d come out feeling aggressive and yet more receptive? Do you remember… The Design Group? Leonard Drake Skin Care Centres? Sylvia Levin registering voters in front of Mani’s? Cora’s breakfast and lunch counter before she served dinner or had the outside tables wrapped by Christo? Homeless Thanksgiving at the Civic Auditorium before decent human kindnesses became “public feedings?” Ireland Pays? Amalfi’s? Amici Mare? Paul’s Video? Do you remember… Back when Jimmie Spheeris played guitar in the Circle Bar which his mom ran, full of surfers and songs from Jimmie like: “I am the mercury/light of the morning/looking for shelter in the thunder and the raaaaain...” Spending part of Sunday as part of the Cappuccino Club with Shari and Gloria at the Farmer's Market? When the Farmer’s Market stayed open ‘til 2? (me neither) Do you remember… I “N” Joy Bagels on Pico or Noah’s on Main Street where you could easily rip off celery soda? Between that and the rent no wonder they closed. Taking your bike to Bicycleville in the alley behind Vidiots, where the friendly guy kept it for six months without repairing it and it turned out he couldn’t find it because there were so many bikes stacked up in Bicycleville? The Green garbage containers before they put in new ones with the PAC-Man-come-lately logo of mountain, sea, and bike path? Schwarzenegger’s Shatzi when he held his first cigar nights and Sinatra would show up and flirt with Groucho Marx 'til a quarter to 3? Do you remember… When Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan lived on Appian Way and ordered eight dishes at Gates of India and when they asked how many people were in the band so they could figure in enough utensils, Nusrat said, "No, all eight are for me." Hot Dog Stick when they raised the rent 600 percent? (And don’t even ask about when they had actual newspaper racks and you could find a Times downtown.) (Hank Rosenfeld is nostalgic for five minutes ago, and reading Rufus Baker’s guest column last Friday realized he just can’t handle the changes.) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 27, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/072702.pdf?ref=smdp.com)