WHM-Best-of-18-final

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endeavors which included a graphic
design agency called Source Arts and
the sale of albums by their improvisational
psychedelic band YaHoWa13,
which often performed at the restaurant.
Father Yod, in his crisp white suits, full
snowy beard, gleaming Rolls Royce
and surrounded by young girls, was
as much a rock star and fashion icon
as he was a restauranteur and spiritual
leader.
The Source Restaurant was sold at the
end of 1974, at which time The Family
moved to Hawaii. The inimitable Father
Yod would die the following year
(in rock star fashion) crashing a hangglider
head first into an Oahu beach.
Today, with every surface of the restaurant
painted with tromp l’oeil
tramps and bamboo shoots, little remains
of the white robed hippies that
served up sprouts to the likes of Marlon
Brando and John Lennon.
WHEN CABO CANTINA
WAS CULT CANTINA
- By Gus Heully
The building now occupied by Cabo
Cantina on Sunset Boulevard was built
in 1946 and has had its share of interesting
owners, Ever wonder what
other lives it has had?
Long a restaurant, this spot has offered
hamburgers, Cajun and Mexican
food, but is most famous for its life as
The Source, a restaurant that mixed
vegetarian cuisine with spirituality,
psychedelic music and a cult commune.
The Source Restaurant was opened in
1969 by Father Yod (aka Jim Baker) patriarch
of The Source Family. A cultlike
commune of about 140, The Source
Family shared a Los Feliz mansion,
promoted a natural vegetarian diet,
apparently abstained from drugs and
alcohol and prepared to create a utopia
following what was seen (understandably
in the 1970s) as an inevitable nuclear
apocalypse.
A highly charismatic man of varied
talents, Yod is reported to have been
a Marine, jiujitsu master, Hollywood
stuntman and killer. His record includes
a 1955 justifiable homicide and
1963 manslaughter conviction; stemming
from arguments over a dog and
another man’s wife respectively.
What is more, The Source was not Father
Yod’s first health centric restaurant.
He was responsible for the Aware
Inn which opened in 1957, making it
one of the first (if not the first) organic
restaurants as well as The Old World
restaurant — famous for its veggie
burgers. All three restaurants were on
Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood,
making our city a birthplace of the organic,
vegetarian and health-food movements.
But, above the restaurant there once
existed a low-ceilinged sanctum, a loft
accessible only by ladder, lined in billowing
brocade and clouded with incense,
where Father Yod would meditate
with his wives.
Does this room still exist? A secret retreat
of hippy scented contemplation
above the sombrero wearing, shot
slamming sports bar scene below?
Just the idea of this juxtaposition, surreal
and secretive, is delicious enough.
The Source Family had official nonprofit
religious organization status
and was financially self-sufficient,
thanks to the success of
the restaurant and other business
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