Rocky Cola Café falls to economy
Katelyn Pagnini leans on the nostalgic sounds of a jukebox inside Rocky Cola Café. Photo Rocky Cola Café on Sunday will end its 20-year run as the big, red and white diner on the buzzing intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Aviation Boulevard in Hermosa Beach. Owner Wally Curry, a Redondo Beach resident, said the 1960s-themed diner with night-owl hours, plump red booths and an extensive fitness menu fell victim to the down-turned economy and rising lease costs. “We were doing great until ’08, then the bottom fell out,” Curry said. “It will be almost 20 years to the day. We opened Aug. 12, 1991, and we’re closing Aug. 21, 2011.” Wally Curry ends a 20-year run. Photo Weekend business remained strong, but weekday business fell off, he said. In a sign of the times, realtors, building contractors and their crews stopped showing up for weekday lunches. “You can’t do this on two days a week,” Curry said. Smoking was prohibited inside Rocky Cola before it was banned by state law. But Curry said the no-alcohol aspect of the diner’s healthy, family orientation might have worked against it in the long run. “We never pursued alcohol, when everyone else did. That’s probably one thing we…
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