The Formosa Cafe – 75 Years and Counting!

Sitting on Santa Monica Blvd, on the corner of Formosa Avenue, is the Formosa Cafe. Located in a former Red Car Trolley, the Formosa has been a Hollywood hangout and a Los Angeles icon for 75 years. My grandparents went there in the 1940s and 1950s and my parents hung out there in the 1960s. Then when the movie Swingers came out in 1996, suddenly it was the place to be for myself and my post-college friends. The long space with low lighting, red leather booths and celebrities photos hanging on every possible space on the wall was just like when my grandparents and parents would go there.