C.C. Brown’s
I’m always suspicious of restaurants that claim to have invented some item that you now find on menus everywhere. In Philadelphia, there are at least three places that will swear to you the Philly steak sandwich was first served on their premises, and there are two in L.A. alone (Phillipe’s and Cole’s Pacific Electric Buffet) that insist they originated the French Dip.
Legend has it that the hot fudge sundae was the creation of one Clarence Clifton Brown, serving patrons a dish of ice cream with a little apply-it-yourself flask of molten chocolate. This supposedly occurred in his parlor in downtown L.A. in 1906. In 1929, his son Cliff moved the business to 7007 Hollywood Boulevard, just down the street from Grauman’s Chinese Theater. There it stood for decades, serving sundaes to celebrities and to tourists who came by to watch the celebrities eat sundaes. Its lush interior — mahogany booths with pink leather seats — was seen in several movies including Minnie and Moscowitz.
I went there the first time as a kid in the mid-sixties and the sundae was delicious but a bit of a disappointment. From all I’d heard about it in advance, I was expecting something that would put your basic Baskin-Robbins sundae to shame…and the one at C.C. Brown’s was only marginally better. Which is not to say it was anything but delicious. I just imagined the world’s greatest hot fudge sundae, as I’d long heard it was, would do something more than just taste good.
The establishment on Hollywood Boulevard finally closed in 1996, its final days marked by a stampede of patrons who acted like they might never taste a decent hot fudge sundae again. The company seems to still exist, franchising the name and selling fudge and yogurt and (I think) ice cream, as well. In many a restaurant, you can still find the assertion that they’re serving a C.C. Brown hot fudge sundae indistinguishable from the original…but I’ll bet most of those places microwave the fudge.
15 Responses to C.C. Brown’s
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My best friend Walt Mitchell and I always made a point of going to C.C. Brown’s when we visited Hollywood and were saddened when it closed, especially since we missed the closing by a bout 3 weeks. We enjoyed the hot fudge sundaes but what we enjoyed even more was talking with longtime owner John Schumacher. I guess he enjoyed talking with us, too, because when we stopped in during our annual trek, he remembered us.
Lawry’s bought the rights to C.C.Brown’s. You can order a C.C. Brown’s sundae at any one of their restaurants.
I went out to Hollywood in 1982 to work on movies. I lived out of a mini home and parked it in the Safeway grocery store parking lot and lived there. Evening when I had extra money I would go to C.C.’s and have a hot fudge Sunday or an egg cream. I miss that.
I used to deliver chocolate there in the early 80′s, I loved the feel just walking in! Everyone that worked there was awesome! Too bad it’s gone we need more places like that!
A delight in the big, dark brown booths after seeing West Side Story at Grauman’s Chinese next door, some sort of concert at the Hollywood Bowl, etc.
We had just arrived back in L.A. from a two week trip to France and Italy.. So we couldn’t settle down and decided to stop in to CC Brown’s for a Sundae. We splurged for an extra metal caraf of caramel and fudge … I told the waiter about the extra charge “No problem” When the check came… I realized we had no money… “Whoooops!” We promised to come back and pay another time….. I explained how I owned a restaurant in BH…. but I felt so stupid! They let us leave…. I did go back the next day and paid my bill…. We’ll never forget how foolish I felt ordering like a bigshot with no cash!!
I lived on Franklin in the early 1990s, about a block and a half from C.C. Brown’s. At least once a week I had a sandwich there, followed by a hot fudge sundae. So sad to visit Hollywood and see C.C. Brown’s was gone!
The Tam O’Shanter in L.A.’s Los Feliz district (owned by Lawry’s) has C.C. Brown hot fudge sundaes. Tasted good when I ate there recently. P.S. Walt Disney used to frequent the place, has that old world charm and good food: <a href="http://www.lawrysonline.com/tam-oshanter"
The new website for the CC Brown Hot Fudge is: http://shop.lawrysonline.com/e-store/prod_details.asp?pid=11221331591200&pcid=7927396476
$32 for 4 bottles. Would last 2, maybe 3 nights at my house.
My mom, who’s 80 yrs old, has been away for 8 years. She’s finally coming for a visit. She’s the type of person that won’t ask for a thing ever! I asked her what would you like to do 1st (since she was raised from 14 yrs old in Hollywood, CA).
The only thing that was on her wish list to do was to visit CC Brown and have a hot fudge sundae.
Now what am I going to do? I would give her the world and now there’s no CC Brown.
Take her to The Tamoshanter. Even the almonds taste like they did at CC Brown’s.
Memories from childhood. I took my future husband there on our first date. The best hot fudge sundaes ever.
When I was growing up in the 1950′s, my Grandmother used to take me to
CC Brown’s on Sunday afternoons, usually after a visit to Travel Town in Griffith Park. It wasn’t just the Sundaes, it was the whole feeling of the building, the booths, the very high ceiling, the light fixtures, the sounds and the smells. The sandwiches were good, and they had their own line of chocolate candy that was a rival for See’s. I continued to go there occasionally, until they closed in 1996. It was one of the first places I took my Wife when we first started dating.
I found out and went to this ice cream store a block down from the Chinese theater. I had the specialty, chocolate sundae. I was greatly disappointed because the taste was terrible and full of rubbery milk fat. I left and couldn’t agree that the hand-made ice cream was anything but disgusting. Thrift drug store ice cream was better tasting and 85% of the over price at C.C.s. YUK!
CC Brown’s was truly an L.A. classic! Add Thrifty’s ice cream and what more did you need? It was truly an institution-that will never be recreated, but can live on through Lawry’s version of the famous recipe. Try it, as it is much better than a “microwaved” jar of any other sauce. It still is out there and it is good!