By Todd Urick
Monday September 16 at 7:00 pm, the City of Davis Historical Resources Management Commission is meeting to review an application to demolish the building at 4823 Chiles Road, “Cindy’s Restaurant”. Cindy’s closed in October 2022 due to the restaurant operatorator’s inability to reach agreement over lease renewal. With the building now over 50 years old, the City is beckoned to review the historical qualities and cultural importance it may have to the community. I applaud the City in giving this building the benefit of the doubt. But in most cases, reviews under local historical ordinances and/or CEQA can be an exercise in the owners paying the right consultants to check the correct boxes on forms to not impede the demolition schedule. These cases always get me thinking about what Americans actually value, and our perceptions of what we think is “historical.”
If you have lived in Davis for the last four years, you know Cindy’s. It’s the Brady Bunch-era styled sign almost hidden on the freeway by Mace Blvd. It’s a little funky inside, like an old Denny’s. In a way, it’s unlike Davis because it’s stuck in another time. It was a comfortable restaurant with a townie/blue collar vibe. You could even get a salad drizzled with bacon grease to satiate your penchant for anachronistic 70s cuisine. The Cindy’s experience was a living history. New restaurants have the vibe of eating in someone’s echoey garage on stainless steel surgical tables.
The Cindy’s building is now an extant example of 50-70s roadside Americana — “coffee shop” or “family restaurant” architecture — that was once ubiquitous along the Lincoln and Golden State Hwys. Examples of other mid century eateries that were once nearby along Interstate 80 were Eppies, Milk Farm, Coffee Tree, Nut Tree, Old Vacaville Dennys/Hideaway Lounge, Lou’s Junction, Cordelia Junction Truck Diner, Rod’s Hickory Pit. These have all been razed (Black Oak Restaurant, and Bill and Kathy’s, aka “Panty Hose Junction”, have closed down but have not been razed yet). Cindy’s Kow Thai did not close because the business was not successful, but it appeared the lure of a corporate franchise would yield more money for the landlord.
Cindy’s has been a part of the lives of Davisites for multiple decades as the longest running restaurant under the same name in the City. Cumulatively, over generations, it may be one of the most identifiable fixtures to local denizens. Within the lobby of the restaurant used to be photographs of all the various wait staff and cooks, which were family to restaurant frequenters. Its roof is an iconic fixture of some 60’s and 70’s restaurants. The Coffee Tree Vacaville, designed by the boutique architecture firm Dreyfuss & Blackford (which received an architectural award), had a similar roof.
This issue I have with historical commissions is if a building is not a mansion from the early 1900’s, it is likely not historic. Our definition of historic has nothing to do with acknowledging the architecture or culture that defined each era, but really something like “is a building really ornate,” or “is the community going to be really offended by its removal?” Even at that we had no problem demolishing some of the most awe inspiring houses on the west coast at Bunker Hill in Los Angeles. We hollowed out every central city across the country with urban renewal. Davis’ 1920-era building, Hotel Aggie, was even voted down by the City Council twice for preservation, eventually succumbing to demolition. Historical Commissions and CEQA many times, inadvertently, just give more credence to assert that everything is not historic to assure no legal doubt to the people that yearn to be a part of a place that is not disposable.
It is understood that Davis’ preservation ordinance traditionally has been exercised with buildings from the early half of the last century. But I think it is time to think about preservation of mid-century and later commercial buildings, who continually get short shrifted as kitschy, utilitarian, or unmaintained. I find it unfortunate that historians really don’t care about maintaining at least some key fixtures from mid-century or later aesthetic as living reminders of what is unique to this community. Relegating historical significance to crafted structures only like Victorian mansions is subjective. Sutter’s Fort or The Alamo are aesthetically underwhelming, but echo important stories about a certain time in history.
In another ten years the 1950-70s indoor shopping mall, which acted as the town square of its day, might have few living examples. A mall might be the most significant cultural building in an area, but we think about them the same way as urban renewal was applied to clearing pesky, decaying sections of downtown in the 1950s. I proffer that there is an inconsistency in grading what should be saved. If, say, 70% of Davis was developed post War World II, does that mean 70% of the city is perennially ahistoric? There are unique elements of the boomer era worth saving, like the roundhouse at Chestnut Park, or the “Auto Washette” sign that used to be at 5th and L Streets.
The Yolo-Solano area has lost significant history with the demolition of Nut Tree and Milk Farm. Vacaville has lost its identity as a preeminent family travel stop with the removal of the Nut Tree/Coffee Tree. People are still bitter about this scrapping of history over two decades later. Every exit is now the same thing — McDonalds, Taco Bell, Starbucks, etc. Most of Davis looks like a boring suburb that could be anywhere in America, but these small hole-in-the-wall drive-ins similar to the former Redrum Burger are finally being recognized for their cultural relevance and tourism value in certain places. When someone from out of town visits Davis, and you want to take them to some place that is “longstanding Davis”, it is modest but Davis-defining places like Symposium, Froggy’s, or Cindy’s that differentiate Davis from other conglomerations of subdivisions built off I-80. But there are few of these places left. These destinations add an often hard-to-quantify dimension of quality of life.
Is it possible that Americans have a hard time developing civic pride because cities don’t maintain senses of place, historical fixtures, or architectural diversity? When you tear down the fixtures of “place” every 20 years, it’s hard to see your city as different as any other place. We subconsciously begin to subscribe to the idea that all places are disposable and utilitarian.
The proposed Chipotle literally looks like a plain box — the most inexpensive architecture possible. I assert the developer should explore integrating the Cindy’s dining room and jubilant roof into the Chipotle restaurant design, in addition to saving the iconic Cindy’s sign adjacent to I-80. In addition to the City meeting Monday at 7pm at 646 A Street, public comments can be emailed to the city up to the meeting at tmcnairn@cityofdavis.org.
Why do I remember that location being a former Pizza Hut?
Am I wrong, was there a Pizza Hut nearby?