Ships Coffee Shop was a small chain of

coffee shops A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-caf ...

with iconic

Modern architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The architectural style is classified as

Googie Architecture Googie architecture ( ) is a type of futurist architecture influenced by car culture, Jet aircraft, jets, the Atomic Age and the Space Age. It originated in Southern California from the Streamline Moderne architecture of the 1930s, and was pop ...

. Ships was especially known for its signage. Martin Stern Jr. was the architect. The Ships menu included Shrimp Louie, Navy bean soup, Ship Shape Burger, Steak-O-Bob, Chicken Pot Pie and Hot Cake Sandwich. Sunbeam toasters were located at tables and on the counters for customers to prepare their own toast. There were three Ships locations opened by resterauteur Emmett Shipman and his father Matt Shipman, at Westwood, Culver City and La Cienega. They were open 24 hours, 365 days a year, never closing. The Westwood (two part) Ships CS/CG (Coffee Shop/Chicken Galley) Wilshire Boulevard and Glendon Avenue, was the second to open (1958). It closed on Thursday September 20, 1984 and was demolished shortly after, to make way for a 20 story office building. The Ships at La Cienega Boulevard and Olympic Boulevard, was the last to open (1963). It closed at 4pm on Wednesday 30 August 1995 and was later demolished. This was the Ships which featured in the film Into The Night. The Culver City Ships at Washington Boulevard and Overland Avenue, was the first to open (Dec 1956), and last to close, at 4pm on Thursday 31 August 1995, although it re-opened on Friday 20 October (under new management, Matthew 'Matt' Shipman, son of Emmett Shipman) and finally closed on November 25, 1996 (after the lease expired). The building was later occupied by Starbucks, but was remodeled beyond recognition in 2013. Ships continued to live on for a few years, through their Official Website (from 2011), run by 'Mr. Ships', (Matthew 'Matt' Shipman, son of Emmett Shipman) until his untimely death in 2016. The website closed down in December of that year (Exactly 60 years after the first Ships Coffee Shop opened for business).ShipsCoffeeShop.com - Official Website
/ref> Like the Culver City restaurant, after being closed down, the website was reinstated for just over a year, before closing down permanently.

References

{{Reflist Defunct restaurants in Los Angeles Googie architecture in California