The Street

Canter's

Façades

History

The center of everything is Canter's -

The Canter family originally opened up a delicatessen in Jersey City in 1919. They came west along with many Jews from the northeastern United States in the early 1940s, and opened a delicatessen in the Boyle Heights neighborhood, which at that time had a substantial Jewish population. After World War II, the Jewish population of Boyle Heights left en masse for the Fairfax District, West Hollywood, and other West Side neighborhoods (as well as the San Fernando Valley) and Canter's followed the influx of Jewish businesses west, converting a movie theater which had previously shown Yiddish-language films to a delicatessen much larger than its previous spaces.

Canter's quickly became a hangout for show business personalities, given its location and its late hours. It has remained such ever since. In the 1960s, Canter's became a late night hang out for hippies, rock musicians, and other countercultural types, partially for the same reasons. Also, many rock musicians had grown up in Fairfax and West Hollywood, and the Sunset Strip was only half a mile away. It has remained a favorite of rock musicians to the present day, and is still open 24 hours as always. Canter's is open every day of the year except for the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

The bar in Canter's, called the Kibbitz Room, has been a favorite of music personalities. Even though the restaurant is open 24 hours, the Kibbitz Room closes earlier, usually before midnight. [Officially 1:40 am]

The restaurant has been featured in several movies and television shows, including HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm in the episode "The Blind Date."

In 2003, Canter's opened an additional location inside Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Today, the restaurant is not certified kosher although kosher meat is available upon request. The restaurant is open on Saturdays.

And the food is great. Try the chopped liver and tongue on the dark rye.

Garrett Kamps -

Don't go to the Kibitz Room expecting to find the next incarnation of the one band, the Wallflowers, whose notorious residency there put the place on the map when the band broke big. In other words, this place should not be associated with the music it books but rather the fact that it's one of LA's oldest and strangest dives. Located within Canter's, that infamous kosher kitchen you've all stumbled into at four in the morning at least once, the Kibitz Room features a strange staff and surprisingly stiff drinks. The decor is minimal and the cookies behind the counter at Canter's offer more eye-candy than the clientele. Nonetheless, if you're just interested in tossing back a few stiff ones with your buddies and you'd like to catch some of LA's lesser known acts - usually rock - you can do a lot worse than the Kibitz Room.

So be it.

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If you use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me

These were shot with a Nikon D70 - using lens (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto, or after 5 June 2006, (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0

The original large-format raw files are available upon request.