By Burton Cantara, Quilt staff
DATELINE: VANOWEN STREET
A beloved West Valley liquor store with iconic, mid-century signage has declined to change its name to reflect impending development in the area.
Located on Vanowen Street near Canoga Avenue in Canoga Park’s bustling Vanowga neighborhood, Rocket Liquor opened in 1957, during the early days of the space race, directly across the street from the Rocketdyne rocket engine manufacturing plant.
But with the aerospace industry giant gone and the site being prepped for the construction of a massive 46-acre complex featuring thousands upon thousands of new apartment units, the once-futuristic name “Rocket Liquor” may seem today like a dated relic from the past.
Out-of-State Investment Technologies, the firm behind the upcoming project, asked the owners to consider to changing the business name to something more suited to its soon-to-be new neighbor. Various suggestions reportedly included “Extremely High-Density Housing Liquor,” “Complete West Valley Gridlock Liquor,” and “You Geniuses Rejected Measure S, Now Suck It Liquor” among others.
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However, for now at least, Rocket Liquor will continue to be known as Rocket Liquor.
“Yeah, we just updated the Space Shuttle sign on the building last year,” explains an employee.
Next time I need to fill my phone card I'll stop by and check out their fine wine selection!
ReplyDeleteGet that money order to pay the gas bill while you're there and you're crossing three things off your To Do list!
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