On the northeast corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Virgil Ave stands a small shack, maybe thirty square feet at best. When I moved to the neighborhood in 2012, the shack was a Mexican restaurant called El Unico Pollo Taquero. El Unico Pollo was well known for its quality inexpensive food and the constant presence of grill smoke from the many chickens they grilled and served every day. You used to be able to buy a whole chicken plus rice and beans for approximately $12, and that meal was big enough to feed at least two very hungry people.
A few months ago, in mid-January, my collaborator Samanta noticed that El Unico Pollo had disappeared overnight. The red and white of their building’s exterior remained, but gone was the grill smoke, the colorful picnic tables, the music, the El Unico Pollo sign, and the bustle of individuals and families buying a meal.
Unsure of what was to come, I watched the shack for a month or two. No movement. Then, suddenly one day, the colorful shack had been painted a dull gray and white, a common color-scheme for incoming businesses, as well as for newly renovated homes and apartment buildings in the area. The defining features for El Unico Pollo had been stripped away, leaving only the shape of the building but none of the character. A sign went up shortly thereafter that said BBQ + Rice. BBQ + Rice is a local chain that has at least one other brick-and-mortar location. They primarily sell rice and salad bowls topped with BBQ’d meats for $10-$11 per bowl.
But this is not the story I am here to tell you. This is only the end of a much longer history for the little shack that stands on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. A shack that, in its 70+ year history, has been home to at least five different dining establishments: BBQ + Rice, El Unico Pollo, Mini Bites, Sean’s Burgers, and what appears to me to be the original, most famous, and most beloved restaurant that once inhabited the shack, Jay’s Jayburgers.
I have been trying to piece together the history of all these restaurants for months now, collecting memories from my various neighbors, reading through local blog posts and press about the shack’s different occupants/owners, and, most surprisingly, perusing a now defunct Yelp page for the original restaurant that occupied the shack: Jay’s Jayburgers. But before we get to that Yelp page, I’m going to try and give you a brief history of how Jay’s came and went from the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Virgil Avenue.
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