About our staff
Debbie, Jamie, Casey, and Larry all work together on every aspect
of the business to make it successful....
Big Daddy's Big Family: Casey, Debbie. Jamie and
Larry
Jerry Parker was the original "Big Daddy" of this family.
Teaching Larry how to organize, deputize, supervise, and recognize.
Think on your feet and focus on the needs of the
customer.
What we do.... Funnel Cakes have taken over.... Our pizza is huge but funnel cakes, fried oreos, apple pie fries, twinkies and soon... fried KoolAid!
We do many things. We started the surfboard tables here in Venice Beach.
As we blended our smoothies, made fresh food we realized who we were
and what we should look like. We are a surfside beach burger/pizza/sausage
stand.
Fresh home made style food on the beach is just one part of our business.
Fresh Pizza dough, fresh cut onion rings, our own brand of spicy chicken
sausage, We are now using Wisconsin "Grande" cheese for our Cheese pizza, bottled water to make our 4 different pizza doughs, semolina, sea salt for the best tasting pizza.
Our business history
Debbie's family immigrated from Palermo Italy. Joe and Rose opened a 24 Hour Truck Stop "The Hilltop" Motel Gas Station and Restaurant in Hudson Ohio. After the new Highway exit passed the HillTop by, Joe moved his family to Sunny California. My GrandPa Adolph Parker, arrived at Ellis Island from Austria in 1919 and set up a 5cent and 9 cent store in Harlem, New York. He opened about 6 locations, married our Spanish/Turkish GrandMother Pearl and operated the stores until the Great Depression, which motivated our family to move to the Jefferson Park area of Los Angeles. GrandPa Adolph set up a couple Thrift Shops and lived upstairs until all the kids moved on with their lives. On My Mom's side of the family, they all came from Russia and Since 1928 in Chicago our family has been operating many different foodservice
operations. "Puddy's" bar and dining room with a gambling
casino in the back on Chicago's Roosevelt Road ....flourished in the Roaring
20's through the prohibition and on into the 1940's. Something about
moonshine and poker!
Our Grandmother Rosie moved to Los Angeles to open "The Terrace
Cafe" during WWII. Uncle Allen's in the downtown L.A. garment district was famous for the
best brisket in L.A. Jerry Parker, being an Indian Motorcycle rider in the late
40's, bought a burger and pastrami fast food restaurant and partnered with the Famous "Hat" Pastrami stand and Jerry called his place the "Bali-Butn".
This was a favorite stop for the local police, California Highway Patrol,
and "Hells Angels". They knew where to eat.
The Natural Feast in the Bonaventure Hotel served 1000's of conventioneers
in the early 80's. Frozen yogurt was Larry's first foodservice. Opened
in Downtown Los Angeles in 1977 and expanded to Palm Springs in September
of 1977 *opened the Magic Cow on Andreas Road. Larry Parker's 24 Hour Beverly Hills Diner operated from 1982-1997.
We were famous for the Haagen-Dazs milkshake that John Travolta ordered
in the movie "Pulp Fiction" and Drew Barrymore's 
favorite
vegetarian dishes and maybe having something for everyone. Shaq came
by every night for a milkshake and to see our beautiful dancing waitresses.
We specialized in parties. The restaurant was like a public party.
Conventions hired us to produce parties and cater for as many as 7,000
people at one time. . At Big Daddy's we serve everything in our own different
way, one example is the BBQ dipped sausages. They are the best on the
boardwalk. Garlic Basil Fries, Fried Pickles, Spinach & Feta Pizza...just to name a few. Check out our current menu on the food tab .
Stop by and see what we are doing today or e-mail us with your order
we will ship our sausages virtually anywhere in the world!
Click here for Larry Parker's facebook page.
Bold Magazine's story about
Larry Parker's Diner and Big Daddy's
This was a preview e-mail "The Story" starts below this text
Subj: Pub Page - Feb 2001
Date: 1/26/01 1:29:32 PM Pacific Standard Time
From: tapeles@boldmagazine.com (Teena Apeles)
To: DavisMultiMedia@aol.com (Michael Davis) Ziff-Davis Publishing Family
One Man's Dream
Although I am a definite advocate of freedom of expression, I also
have an obligation to the community. We are still going to be a fun,
wild and outrageous magazine, but instead of breaking all the rules,
we will break most of them.
Like most highly creative people, we don¹t think of dollars when
we create. We just go with the creation and express ourselves. Then
we get appreciated or famous after we die, and people say, Wow, BOLD
was ahead of its time. That guy Michael Davis was sending a message,
and it went far beyond the specific topics or features in BOLD. He was
a publisher who started a magazine when the Internet was at its peak
and needed to put something more in printed media to make a splash.
We get it now.
So in many ways, creative people work against themselves. Thus, in
order to sustain itself in today¹s marketplace, BOLD is turning
a new page. In the spirit of new beginnings, I would also like to dedicate
this issue to a good friend named Larry Parker. I feel his untold story
of racism must be told in our Hate issue.
The Story: One Man's Dream
Ever since I was a kid I can remember going to Larry Parker's
in Beverly Hills. Larry would always greet me 
and
get me a table right away; hell, I was still in high school and sneaking
out of class just to go there. Larry would have all kinds of people
dine at his restaurant, his doors were open to everybody, I mean every
body. I remember homeless people going up to the takeout counter and
getting served. If they didn't have the money, Larry wouldn't turn them
away. One night I even saw Michael Jackson.
Everybody who was anybody (and nobody) would be seen at Larry's 24-hour
diner. Slowly but surely, with the influence of stars like Arsenio Hall
and Eddie Murphy, the famous Beverly Hills restaurant became known as
the cool hangout in the early '90s. In fact, Larry was so far ahead
of his time he put monitors and a full-fledged sound system in and pumped
it up.
Word-of-mouth spread, and the hip-hop crowd followed suit into the
small diner. Larry Parker's became the "in" spot for artists,
actors, and comedians like Mickey Rourke, Timothy Hutton, Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Lopez, all the Wayans family, Chris
Rock, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Dr. Dre, Coolio, Jamie Foxx, Denzel
Washington, Wesley Snipes, Angela Bassett, Natalie Cole, Mike Tyson,
Snoop Dog, LL Cool J, Eazy-E, Busta Rhymes (before he was famous) and
Tone Loc. You name 'em, they ate at Larry's. In fact, you could see
unedited rap videos of these artists before BET or MTV would premiere
them. Larry had only one rule: No dancing on the tables!
The years went by and everybody enjoyed great food, entertainment,
a clientele that included lots of sexy girls, and fun. However, no one
could have predicted that Larry would soon be in for a fight. Cops from
the Beverly Hills Police Department began harassing him and primarily
his African-American customers: telling people to go somewhere else,
pulling them over for no reason, and parking police cars around Larry's
to intimidate them, among other things. To make matters worse, the city
would not grant him permits for outside patio dining, making it increasingly
difficult for Larry to operate his business.
Larry's "hip-hop" diner eventually closed its doors in 1997.
He, his wife and their two sons soon moved away from Beverly Hills.
Luckily, it wasn't long before Larry's life took a turn for the better.
Within a few months, Larry opened Big Daddy's a landmark Venice restaurant
on the boardwalk.
Big Daddy's, located at Oceanfront Walk and Market Street, is open
everyday serving fresh food from sunrise to sundown. Larry has proven
you must never stop fighting for something you believe in through all
of life's ups and downs. His dream to serve the best damn food in L.A.
to anyone who wants to eat it (black, white, yellow and green) has finally
been realized! Isn't that the American way?
Michael Davis
Publisher
