Here's another number from L.A. Now and Then, the fine revue I wrote about here. The show's creator Bruce Kimmel has great feelings for C.C. Brown's, an ice cream parlor that was on Hollywood Boulevard that was beloved for its hot fudge sundaes. Legend has it that its founder Mr. Brown (the C.C. stood for Clarence Clifton) invented the hot fudge sundae. Well, maybe. They served a great one…though now that I think of it, I don't think I ever had not-great one anywhere and…
Well, okay. I'll risk getting Bruce mad at me and say it: I was never a big fan of hot fudge sundaes and when I did have one, I usually thought it was just too much dessert to be consumed in the amount of time you had before it all melted into something runny and problematic. Also, the fudge so overpowered the ice cream, you could have poured it on a ball of chilled Minute Rice and had much the same dining experience.
My fave H.F.S.? The now-defunct (in L.A.) restaurant Ed Debevic's used to serve what they called "The World's Smallest Hot Fudge Sundae." It came in a tiny cup, cost $1.95 I think and was consumable in two small bites. It was, for me, the perfect after-dinner bonus and, matters of size aside, it wasn't much different from the ones at C.C. Brown's. Here's Robert Yacko singing about another lost landmark in the City of Angels…