Eddie Kover’s Bull Pen Jr. Restaurant in Pacoima
This colorful vintage postcard shows the exterior of Eddie Kover’s Bull Pen Jr., once located at 10351 San Fernando Road in Pacoima. With its oversized Western-style façade, wagon-wheel accents, and glowing neon sign featuring a cowboy riding a bull, this was clearly not the type of restaurant designed to blend into the background.
Billing itself as “The Valley’s Most Unique Place to Eat” and proudly declaring “That’s No Bull,” Kover’s Bull Pen Jr. served steaks, chops, prime ribs and its signature “Bullburgers” in a setting that must have felt like a little roadside Western attraction along San Fernando Road.
The postcard is believed to date from the 1950s, capturing an era when locally owned restaurants relied on dramatic neon signs, themed architecture and memorable roadside advertising to attract passing motorists. It is another wonderful reminder of the unusual and often over-the-top restaurants that once lined the San Fernando Valley.
Interestingly, the building appears to still be standing today, although the memorable Western restaurant façade and neon bull signage are long gone. In a more recent street-view image, the property appears to be operating as part of a used car dealership, with automobiles filling the former restaurant frontage. While the roadside character has changed dramatically, it is always fascinating to discover that the physical structure of a long-lost Valley restaurant may still survive beneath decades of later commercial use.
Postcard Details:
Kover’s Bull Pen Jr.
10351 San Fernando Road, Pacoima, California
Published by Mellinger Studio, Pasadena, California
Postcard No. C-15241
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Marty Mcfly
Anything and everything about the San Fernando Valley. This blog will take you back in time when the valley was covered with dirt and orange groves to a leader in the space race to its current status as America's suburb. Come along and join me on this adventure, I guarantee you have been influenced/impacted by the San Fernando Valley in one form or another even if you have never visited or heard of the SFV.
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