'BMPP @ 5 Line' Takes Eagle Rock Back to its Roots—at Least in Name

A little more than three months after Corner Pizzeria was bought out by a Big Mama’s & Papa’s Pizzeria franchise on the corner of Colorado Boulevard and Caspar Avenue, the new restaurant has undergone a complete facelift—under a tricky name.

BMPP @ 5 Line, as the restaurant is called, is really two next-door businesses with the same name: BMPP refers to the pizzeria, which was refurbished last month, while 5 Line is the name of a full-liquor bar expected to open in about two months.

Except for the same set of owners and a shared wall, the two businesses near Friday’s Farmers’ Market have nothing in common. Those familiar with the neighborhood’s history will have no trouble recognizing that the bar’s name is a tribute to the 5 Line “Yellow Cars” trolley system that once linked Eagle Rock to downtown Los Angeles and the City of Hawthorne.

“We are taking the community back to its roots,” Hovik Dan Kechabashyan, one of the four partners behind the twin venture, told Eagle Rock Patch. “We are creating a lounge type of place where people can hang out—a happy atmosphere for everyone to come and enjoy.”

Although 5 Line was the brainchild of Eddie Kadinyan, who owned Corner Pizzeria and displayed architectural renderings for the bar at a couple of Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council meetings last year, the upcoming business will have nothing to do with the previous owner’s plans, according to Kechabashyan.

The bar will also evidently not be modeled on the BJ’s chain of casual restaurants, as a manager at the BMPP franchise had told Patch last October, infuriating some readers.

“It will be its own thing,” said Kechabashyan, adding, however, that this would be the first time that a BMPP franchise would be linked to a full-liquor bar.

There’s also some good news for Corner Pizzeria regulars who were sorry to see the restaurant go after just two years and nine months in business.

“Corner Pizzeria was supposed to be a Big Mama’s pizzeria when it originally started,” Kechabashyan said. “But they backed out at the last minute, although they had our menu. Their ‘Giant Sicilian’ pizza was our ‘Big Mama.’ We have ‘egg gondola pizza,’ they used to call it ‘kapouri.’”

Stay tuned for news about 5 Line’s opening.

Related interest: Tracing the Tracks of Eagle Rock's Trolleys