Since the 1940s, the hotdog-shaped Tail o’ the Pup food stand, originally located at the corner of Beverly and La Cienega boulevards, was a favorite spot for locals, celebrities and tourists to get a hotdog or hamburger. Local children visiting neighboring Kiddieland, an amusement park that used to be located on the site of the Beverly Center, especially loved the stand.

New owners 1933 Group will attempt to revive the famous hotdog stand somewhere near its original location. (photo courtesy of Tail o’ the Pup Facebook page)

Making way for new development in the Beverly Grove area, the Pup moved onto San Vicente Boulevard in the 1980s before losing its lease and going into storage in 2005.

This week, 1933 Group, a hospitality company that has restored and reopened multiple historic venues throughout L.A., announced that they have acquired the rights to the name and plan to reopen the original stand, according to media reports. All the company needs is a place to put it.

“Another famous L.A. icon will be brought back to the quirky landscape of this great city by us,” 1933 Group wrote in an Instagram post announcing the acquisition. “So honored and excited. Stay tuned.”

Alison Martino, creator of the Vintage L.A. social media channels, said she used to go to Tail o’ the Pup as a child during visits to Kiddieland. She became a regular into her teenage and adult years, befriending owners Eddie Blake and his son Dennis.

“When that vanished, we lost a major icon in L.A.,” Martino said.

Dennis had been particularly adamant about getting the Pup back in business before he died in 2013.

“I feel like he’s looking down right now very, very happy,” Martino said.

Eddie died in 2017, leaving the stand to his grandson Jay Miller and wife Nicole.

In recent years, the family tried to keep the brand alive with a short-lived Tail o’ the Pup food truck, an illustration of the original stand on its side, on La Cienega. Instead, 1933 Group will see if bringing back the 17-foot-long hotdog stand – composed of two cylinders forming the bun, with a yellow line designed to look like mustard through the middle and two smaller cylinders sticking out of the end as the hotdog – will rekindle its following.

“This is thrilling news,” tweeted Mark Sarvas, a novelist and book reviewer who lived in the local area. “I lived near the Beverly Center for about 12 years and consumed more Tail o’ the Pup dogs than I can count. Excited to see it might finally return to a city that’s too eager to bulldoze markers of its past.”

The stand was designed by architect Milton Blake, and is one of the remaining notable examples of “programmatic” architecture. Over the years, it has appeared in movies, TV shows and commercials.

The Blakes purchased the stand in the mid-1970s from its original owners. It lost its lease in 2005 to make way for a luxury condo development that still hasn’t been built, and the stand has spent most of the last 13 years in a Torrance storage facility.

The Formosa Cafe, near the intersection of La Brea Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, is another local landmark that 1933 Group has been working to restore. The company’s other venues include Highland Park Bowl, originally established in 1927 during prohibition; Idle Hour, a barrel-shaped building in the Valley dating back to the 1940s; and Oldfield’s, a westside neighborhood bar.

“They know how to put things back how we remember them,” Martino said.

1933 Group did not respond to a request for comment before press time.