'Googie' diner to survive as Mel's opens Sunset.

In spite of the odds, Ben Frank's Coffee Shop lives on.

It's not known as Ben Frank's anymore, but rather the newly opened Mel's Drive-In at 8585 Sunset Blvd. - and not incidentally, the Sunset Strip's last piece of "Googie" architecture.

The former Ben Frank's was nearly leveled in the 1980s to make way for a mini-mall, and earlier this decade it came close to being replaced by an office building. But with the arrival of San Francisco-based Mel's, the diner chain made famous by the 1972 movie "American Graffiti," the Ben Frank's building will remain an old-fashioned American diner.

"This is a building with built-in atmosphere and image," said Mel's President Steven Weiss. "Ben Frank's was a casual social hub for the Strip, and that's what we hope to be."

"Googie" is a term for kitschy post-war architecture with shapes out of a "Jetson's" cartoon - featuring boomerangs, starbursts and bubbles. The name is taken from the Googie coffee shop, which once occupied the site of the current Virgin Megastore on Sunset Boulevard.

Other surviving examples of the genre include Johnie's Coffee Shop at 6101 Wilshire Blvd. and the Unocal 76 gas station at 427 Crescent Drive in Beverly Hills. However, it's a dying breed; numerous Googie buildings have been razed to make way for mini-malls.

Ben Frank's was a standard burgers-and-pancakes diner, but in its heyday it was also a place where Hollywood swingers went to cool down as the hour grew late and the clubs closed. Starting in the 1960s, it was known as a vortex for hipsters and celebrities the likes of Andy Warhol, the Rolling Stones and Andrew Dice Clay.

Ben Frank's had been threatened with closure since the late 1980s, when the site's the owner had eyes to tear down the building and put up a more profitable mini-mall. The half-acre plot was especially choice for development because the then-owner, property investor Virginia Borcher, also owned the halfacre lot just to the east.

But West Hollywood officials wanted to preserve the Googie building and forbade the plan, saying that the Ben Frank's building was considered a historical landmark even though it had not been officially designated as such.

At about this time, Weiss said he first contacted the owner to propose opening a Mel's there. Botcher declined and sold the two lots to Los Angeles real estate investment partners David Kermani and Barbara Krantz in 1991.

Kermani sought permission for a three-story office/retail building on the site, but the city again turned down the plan. Kermani disputed the building's landmark status in court and in 1992 won the fight to build as he pleased.

However, the real estate market was then in a slump and Kermani chose to leave Ben Frank's, as is. for a time.

As he waited for the market to recover, West Hollywood city planner Jennifer Davis said she worked to "re-educate" Kermani on the building's historical and architectural value to the city. In 1994, the City Council came one vote shy of having the building declared a historical landmark.

Kermani, who owns a number of other buildings around Los Angeles, acknowledged that the site could yield more profit if it turned into an office building or mini-mall. But he said arguments from city officials and the community convinced him to preserve the building.

Ben Frank's closed its doors in 1995 after the county Health Department ordered costly repairs to bring it up to modern standards, including installation of a new plumbing system, upgrades to the kitchen and bathrooms, and other equipment.

Weiss, whose father Mel Weiss founded Mel's Drive-In in San Francisco in 1947, again made a pitch to open a branch at the site, This time, he landed a 20-year lease on the condition that the company "preserve the character" of the Ben Frank's building, as well as replace its guts. The company is investing over $500,000 to renovate the restaurant and spruce up its coral-colored exterior.

The Sunset Boulevard location will be the sixth Mel's. Five are in California - one of them in Sherman Oaks, where it opened in 1990 - and one is in Jakarta, Indonesia.

At about the time "American Graffiti" opened, the popularity of diners was on the wane and Mel Weiss decided to retire from the restaurant business, said Steven Weiss. A New York company bought the chain of 11 diners and either razed them or converted them into other eateries.

The younger Weiss went on to run his own chain of health food restaurants called The Haven, two of which were open for a time in Los Angeles.

But nostalgia for his father's restaurant and revived interest in "real food and bigger portions" led him to open a new Mel's in San Francisco in 1985.