Palms-based 1933 Group is behind some of L.A.’s most iconic historic renovations.
Most recently, the company opened Tail o’ the Pup, a giant hot dog stand that traces its roots back to the 1940s, in West Hollywood.
The original Tail o’ the Pup closed in 2005. Bobby Green, who founded 1933 Group with Dimitri Komarov and Dmitry Liberman, said he was contacted by a friend of his who ran a museum the stand was being donated to. His friend got Green in touch with the owners of Tail o’ the Pup, who decided to sell the giant hot dog and the name to 1933 Group instead.
“Even though we have never done fast food or fast casual we didn’t think it was too different from what we normally do,” Green said. Most of the group’s other projects have centered around bars and hospitality.
Green said finding a good location was the “key factor” in relaunching the restaurant.
Due to the pandemic, he said, more locations became available and Tail o’ the Pup was able to find a spot in the heart of West Hollywood.
Other projects
1933 Group has done nearly a dozen restorations since it was founded in 1998 with the goal of opening a bar.
Green, who had previously owned a coffee shop, said he was always interested in bar ownership. He connected with Komarov and Liberman, and thus began 1933 Group’s first project: Bigfoot Lodge in Atwater Village.
The company quickly ramped up by opening more locations.
“We were on a roll,” Green said. “We were opening a new establishment every year and a half and at that time it was strictly bars.”
Green said all of the group’s initial undertakings were “vintage inspired” places. Soon after, the company moved into doing more work on actual vintage restorations.
“It wasn’t until we got the opportunity with the Idle Hour in North Hollywood that we got the chance to actually restore a truly vintage place rather than recreating a vintage place,” Green said. The group spent $2 million renovating the property, best known for its giant barrel exterior.
Other restoration projects followed, such as the $2.5 million renovation of Highland Park Bowl, a 1920s-era bowling alley Green said is the oldest bowling alley in L.A.
“Restoration costs double or triple what it costs to build something new,” Green said.
“There is great satisfaction with doing it and great benefits, but it also does come at a cost. Renovation is costlier than new construction, but for us, it doesn’t matter. The passion is greater than the burden of cost and we try to find ways to make it worth it in the end.”
Generally speaking, Green said he likes “to stick with what I know,” which is why he has not done theater or department store renovations.
“The theaters we’ve turned down. We would have to completely learn how to run a theater and book events. We stick with hospitality and try not to stray too far from that,” he said.
For now, Green said the company had no plans to start a new project in the short term, but was instead “tunnel visioned with Tail o’ the Pup and perfecting it.”
“Right now we don’t have a project on the horizon, which is totally fine,” he said. “We still need to lick our wounds and keep the places we have going and building them and perfecting them and getting business back to what it was before we start leveraging ourselves and taking on more projects.”
