John O'Groats, a beloved, multi-award-winning restaurant based in West Los Angeles, will celebrate its 40th Anniversary on Saturday, February 26, 2022. The restaurant has been owned and managed by the Jacoby/Tyler Family since its inception and has been cited by dozens of top national and Southern California media outlets as serving “The Best Breakfast in Los Angeles.”
To celebrate this milestone, John O’Groats will give each of the First 40 Parties to Arrive for Breakfast on the Morning of February 26, 2022, a $40 Gift Certificate!
A favorite breakfast and lunch stop for countless entertainment industry notables during the past 40 years (Guitarist Robbie Krieger of “The Doors” once asked Paul Tyler for some pancake batter ‘to-go’ for his father!) the restaurant has also been featured in several high profile television programs. These include:
- Jerry Seinfeld in “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” (2012) – to view please see: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2323266/mediaviewer/rm3744542976/
- Larry David in “Curb Your Enthusiasm” – (2002) to view please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDrohoO6XrY
- And Jonah Hill & Oprah Winfrey in an “Oprah Winfrey Presents the Oscars” TV Special (2012) –to view please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsI2AJKxo98
- As well as several episodes of “The New Girl” and “The Agency.”
Owner and General Manager Paul Tyler has been operating John O’Groats on a daily basis for decades, having taken up the baton from his parents – Angelica and (the late) Robert Jacoby – who originally founded the venue on February 26, 1982.
Regarding the 40th anniversary milestone of his family-owned business, Paul Tyler said, “We love our customers – it’s as simple as that. Our customers are what drive our business, and we have long been humbled by the overwhelmingly positive feedback we’ve received by the Southern California community over these past 40 years. John O'Groats has been featured in national media outlets as well as in local newspapers and blogs – we’ve even appeared in international listings under top breakfast and lunch restaurants. We’ve have regularly enjoyed great ratings and reviews in Zagat and on Yelp, Urbanspoon, MenuPages, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and TripAdvisor. Our customers simply love what we have to offer, which includes our famous fresh-made biscuits and pancakes, along with dozens of other breakfast and lunch specialties. We also pride ourselves on our catering and event services, and we are able to make any of our menu items available for take-out or to be included on an event’s catering menu.”
Adds Angelica Jacoby, “I have so much faith and trust in God and I’m very proud of everything I have. The key to our success in this business is simple: you have to like people. My son Paul is a real people person – a very nice man who has always been an extrovert. His role here at John O’Groats isn’t a job for him – it’s his life.
The History of John O'Groats Restaurant
John O’Groats, named for a city in the far north of Scotland, was opened on February 26th, 1982, by Angelica Jacoby and her husband, the late Robert Jacoby – he, the owner of the legendary, West Los Angeles restaurant “Bit ‘o’ Scotland.” The original John O’Groats restaurant was located at the southwest corner of Manning Avenue and Pico Boulevard in West LA. At that time, it was a 750-square building with just a 20-seat counter.
At the original site, Mr. Jacoby was the cook and Mrs. Jacoby was the waitress, and the only meals served at that time were breakfast and lunch: this to ensure that the Jacoby’s could have dinner with their sons, Paul and Carl Tyler. After only five months of operation, the restaurant received its first review in the L.A. Reader, and soon after that, John O’Groats was being heralded as one of Los Angeles’ best breakfast restaurants. The venue remained at its original location for two years with great success. The reason for that success was no secret – the Jacoby’s insisted on purchasing the best available products, e.g. farm fresh eggs, thickly sliced lean bacon, and fresh produce, and serving everyone with a smile. Mrs. Jacoby also had the remarkable ability to remember her guests’ names on the first visit – a trait her son, Paul Tyler, clearly inherited.
In the Summer of 1984, John O’Groats relocated to its second location, where it remains today on West Pico Blvd. This was the summer prior to Paul Tyler’s freshman year at Cornell University’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration. The Jacoby’s continued to run the restaurant with great success, while Paul was learning more about the business aspects of the restaurant industry. Upon Paul’s completion of his four-year program at Cornell, he returned to work for his parents.
Paul Tyler originally worked in the kitchen, then later as a waiter and a manager, putting to use the principles of both Cornell University and what he’d learned from the Jacoby’s. In the summer of 1994, Paul became the Managing Partner, and since that time, he has created some of the signature dishes that are a part of the O’Groats experience, including Huevos O’Groats and the Vegetarian Hash.
The Jacoby’s and Paul Tyler expanded the restaurant in the summer of 1995 into the (former) storefront that was just to its east. Another expansion occurred again in July of 2000, with the addition of 1,300 square feet of new space in the adjacent storefront to its west.
During the past four decades, John O’Groats has earned such recognitions as “One of the Best Family Restaurants in LA,” “Best Breakfast in Town,” “One of the Top Spots in LA for the Best Pancakes,” “Best Breakfast in America,” “Our Favorite Restaurant,” “Best Breakfast in LA,” “Best Power Breakfast in LA,” “Amazing Breakfasts,” “One of LA’s Best Weekday Breakfast Spots” and “Best Breakfast and Top 40 Dishes” by such prominent national media outlets as the NY Times Style Magazine, USA Today, Esquire Magazine, In Touch Magazine, and the Zagat Guide, and by such prominent Southern California media outlets as the Los Angeles Times, Fox 11 TV News, and Los Angeles Magazine.
Encouraged by the principle “The harder I work, the luckier I get,” Paul Tyler continues to this day to passionately strive to serve his customers the best product with a smile. At present, Angelica Jacoby now concentrates her efforts by supporting and encouraging Paul. She is a wonderful grandmother to Paul and Lisa Tyler’s: three grandchildren, Mary, RJ, and Martha. Robert Jacoby passed away in 2018.
About The Tyler and Jacoby Families
The story of the Tyler and Jacoby Families can best be recalled by Family Matron Angelica Jacoby: Originally born in El Salvador, Angelica married a man she met in Hawaii, Carl Tyler – the duo lived briefly in San Diego before moving up to San Francisco. During their 14-year marriage, the Tylers had two sons, Carl and Paul.
In 1974, the Tylers divorced, and Carl Tyler relocated to Los Angeles. Notably, Carl worked for the people who owned the famed “Alice’s Restaurant” in Westwood for many years. Angelica and her two sons followed a year later, moving to LA in 1975. For the next five years, Angelica worked as a waitress for the noted, West LA restaurant called "Bit 'O' Scotland," which originally opened in 1948 and was taken over by a gentleman named Robert Jacoby in 1962.
Angelica and Robert met at the fabled West LA waterhole “The Tattletale Bar” in 1977, dated for two years, and married in 1979.
Realizing that by working every night the couple didn’t have enough time with their children, Robert left his business interests in “Bit ‘O’ Scotland” in 1982 after exactly 20 years, allowing other members of his family to take it over. (That restaurant permanently closed in 1986.) He and Angelica then decided to open a new family business, “John O’Groats,” naming the venture after a city in Northern Scotland. “We launched the new restaurant so we could see our kids at nighttime,” Angelica says, adding, “Bob was the love of my life. I never met anyone who was so kind and lovable.”
From 1982-1984, Robert Jacoby was the cook, Paul Tyler was a busboy/dishwasher, and Angelica Jacoby was the official “Greeter” for “John O’Groats,” which, upon its inception, was little more than a small counter-top diner. The venue’s exponential growth during the course of its next four decades is a clear testament to the great food, warm atmosphere and hard work invested by the Jacoby/Tyler Families.
Today, with Paul Tyler at the front door, Angelica continues to regularly visit her customers, sharing with them a warm smile, a story, or a wink. And recently, Paul’s half-brother, Joe Tyler, has become actively involved in the business as well, with Paul taking the younger man under his wing, showing him the ropes, and encouraging him to help continue this thriving business – a True Family Operated Enterprise in every sense of the word FAMILY!
John O’Groats is located at: 10516 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90064. The phone is: (310) 204-0692. Visit: https://www.johnogroats.us/home
