Lawry's - History

History

In 1938, Lawry's began marketing its seasoned salt in retail stores. This was the beginning of a food products empire that now sells many kinds of seasonings and flavorings under the Lawry's name. These products were sold to Lipton/Unilever in 1979 but were sold to McCormick & Company in July 2008.

In 1947 Lawry's moved from its original location on La Cienega to the other side of the street and a few blocks further south, to a larger, mostly windowless, strikingly modernistic building designed by Wayne McAllister. In 1993 it moved back to a new building on the original site. McAllister's building is now occupied by The Stinking Rose, a famous garlic-themed Italian restaurant.

In 1956, just prior to the playing of the 1957 Rose Bowl Game between the Oregon State Beavers and the Iowa Hawkeyes, Lawry's entertained the two competing teams. The Beavers were fed at the Beverly Hills restaurant and the Hawkeyes were fed on the Pasadena City College football field following their practice. This started an annual tradition of hosting both Rose Bowl-bound teams for a prime rib dinner, although following the inaugural event with Iowa, the Big Ten teams were served outside Rose Bowl Stadium from 1957-1962. By 1963, when Illinois and Washington both dined at the restaurant on separate nights prior to the 1964 Rose Bowl Game, the two team events had become known as "Lawry's Beef Bowl." A book chronicling the last 50 years of the Rose Bowl Game and the first 50 years of Lawry's Beef Bowl, "Road to the Rose Bowl," was written by Todd Erickson and published in 2005 by Silverback Books (San Francisco). Featuring a foreword by ABC Sports broadcaster Keith Jackson, it has more than 450 photos and recollections from both Rose Bowl players and coaches of the past 50 years.

In 1974, Lawry's opened its second location, in Chicago's River North district. Additional locations were opened in Dallas in 1983 and Las Vegas in 1997. Internationally, Lawry's opened restaurants in Jakarta in 1996, Singapore in 1999, Tokyo in April, 2001, Taipei in 2002, Hong Kong in 2006, and Shanghai & Osaka in 2008.

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