13 - Venice West Café  7 Dudley Avenue

13 - Venice West Café

7 Dudley Avenue

Before the hippies of the ‘60s, Venice was home to the Beats of the ‘50s. It was a cherished lifestyle that enabled struggling poets, musicians and artists to escape from conventional codes of behavior to express their own brand of creativity. The Venice West Café opened in 1958 by Stuart Perkoff to cater to the emerging counterculture movement. The bohemian scene of “Venice West” received national exposure in “The Holy Barbarians” written by Lawrence Lipton in 1959. The café closed its doors in 1966 after battles with the community and an eviction attempt by the building owner.

Built in 1922, the rectangular commercial vernacular building is low slung with a flat roof and rounded corner at Ocean Front Walk at Dudley Ave. The exterior features the original coarse brick with “steers head” ornamentation in white glazed brick accentuating the roofline.

Although no longer here, the Beat Generation spirit of “Venice West” continues to influence the ambiance of Venice.

The former site of the Venice West Café became Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #979 on 3/19/2010.