The Wich Stand
Location: Slauson and Overhill at the north end of Inglewood.
In 1957, Jackie Robinson retired from baseball, Humphrey Bogart died of cancer, Ford launched the Edsel, the Soviet Union launched
Sputnik, and the Wichstand Coffee Shop opened on the corner of Slauson and Overhill.In the early 60's, this was the other place to be on a Friday or Saturday night.
"The Stand" was the hot rodders paradise. If you had a cool car with loud pipes and wanted to show it off, then you went
to The Wich Stand.
Young people came from the South Bay, from the Valley, from Pasadena, literally all over Southern California to cruise The Wich Stand.
You lined up in the parking lane coming up the hill on Slauson, heading for Overhill. The "drive in" parking in the Stand was a little different from the A&W or your typical "Mels Diner" type drive in. You pulled up into a driveway and stopped and waited for a parking spot to open up. In the Wich Stand, you pulled in the back parking spot and when someone in front of you left, then you pulled forward. The spots were three deep and they also had parking by the building (see inset).
Unlike A&W, the Stand also had a restaurant inside the building but the "cool people" used the drive in.