The Brown Derby on Vine. Chasen’s on Beverly. Tower Records on Sunset. And now there may be yet another note in the long, mournful dirge of disappeared Hollywood landmarks: the Canyon Country Store on the corner of Laurel Canyon and Lookout Mountain Avenue.
Rambling Reporter has confirmed that the shambolic hippie stomping grounds of the 1960s and ’70s — Cass Elliot slept in its basement and Jim Morrison immortalized it as “the store where creatures meet” in “Love Street” — has been sold. Even more shocking, there are rumors that the new owners plan on turning the shop into a liquor store.
Co-owner Tommy Bina raised the alarm early in February, posting an Insta video in which he claimed his partners had sold the store “without my knowledge or approval.” He went on to say he didn’t know the new owners or “their intentions” but acknowledged speculation that major changes were coming, including to the building itself. “Which is not okay,” he stated. “If you care about the Canyon Country Store and its history, come and see me and show your support.”
Rambling did indeed stop by, but instead of finding Bina behind the counter, we ran into another co-owner, David Shamsa, who between ringing up pastrami sandwiches and Cadbury Flakes (they started stocking them after David Bowie kept asking for them) offered his version of what was going on.
According to Shamsa, 82, he and three other investors — including Bina’s now-deceased brother, who left his 10 percent share to Tommy — purchased the place in 1982, doing their best to keep its bohemian vibe intact by not making major changes (except for adding, in 2000, a coffee cart on the patio). But after overseeing the shop for 44 years, Shamsa and two of his other partners — one 82, the other 92 — want to sell the place and retire. Bina, in his 60s, is the only one who wants to keep going.
“If he wanted to buy it himself, he could have,” Shamsa says, denying Bina had been kept in the dark about the sale. “He didn’t have the money.”
As for the future of the property, Shamsa suggests not believing everything you hear, describing those liquor store rumors as “bullshit.”
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This story appeared in the March 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
