Red Door Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge

Photo courtesy The Colfax Museum Collection

     In 1956, the handsome Red Door Restaurant opened at 10300 W. Colfax Avenue, to serve, under Chef Johnnie Webb's direction, food in keeping with the atmosphere.

     The Red Door architecture is unusual in that it is one huge room with the rich dark-mahogany bar--presided over by Restaurant Manager Fred Ehelen, who doubles as head bartender--which stretches across the center of the room, acting as a partition separating cocktail lounge from main dining area. The color scheme throughout is green, off-white, and beige, with the lounge section sporting bright Kelly-green frieze booths arranged in three tiers. Sand-blasted pine-board walls are painted a soft green, and wall-to-wall carpeting is maroon with huge green and beige leaves. Tables in the dining area are mahogany to match the bar and lounge table tops, while dining-room chairs have wrought iron bases with seats and back padded in pinkish beige streaked interestingly with charcoal grey. A dance floor and entertainment stage complete the attractive restaurant of this very superior motel, where children and adults alike are guaranteed a wonderful stay.

Reprinted from the Pacific Coast Record, April 1956