L.A.'s Legendary Restaurants: Celebrating the Famous Places Where Hollywood Ate, Drank, and Played

by George Geary, Barbara Fairchild (Foreword)

L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants is an illustrated history of dozens of landmark eateries from throughout the City of Angels. From such classics as Musso & Frank and The Brown Derby in the 1920s to the see-and-be-seen crowds at Chasen’s, Romanoffs, and Ciro’s in the mid-20th century to the dawn of California cuisine at Ma Maison and Spago Sunset in the 1970s and ’80s, L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants celebrates the famous locations where Hollywood ate, drank, and played.

Author George Geary leads you into the glamorous restaurants inhabited by the stars through a lively narrative filled with colorful anecdotes and illustrated with vintage photographs, historic menus, and timeless ephemera. Over 100 iconic recipes for entrees, appetizers, desserts, and drinks are included.

But L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants contains much more than the fancy, high-priced restaurants favored by the Hollywood cognoscenti. The glamour of the golden age of drive-ins, drugstores, nightclubs, and hotels are also honored. What book on L.A. restaurants would be complete without tales of ice cream sundaes at C.C. Brown’s, cafeteria-style meals at Clifton’s, or a mai tai at Don the Beachcomber?

Most of the locations in L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants no longer exist, but thanks to George Geary, the memories are still with us.

Genres: Food, Cookbooks, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published October 11, 2016

Reviews

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really miss LA.

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Geary’s books are an utter delight, especially to people familiar with the areas he’s writing about. I have a fondness for books about Los Angeles, but his writings are extra special. He loves food, restaurants, and history and it shines through his stories.

I had the good fortune of meeting him at my library and he’s such an entertaining and lovely man. His writing style sounds just the way he tells stories, he leaves me wanting to read every single thing he’s ever written.

Great stories. Beautiful photos. Tons of recipes along with the stories of these restaurants! This is another fantastic book by George Geary.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for LA history buffs. It contains brief histories of places like Van deKamps Bakery and restaurants, Lawry's California Center, Schwab's Pharmacy, C. C. Brown's, Chasen's, Ma Maison. Some of the restaurants I had actually been to once or twice(or, in the case of Hamburger Hamlet and Hamptons, many times)and there were many I passed by as I drove around Hollywood back when I lived there. The author has amassed lots of photos as well as original menus and memorabilia from each restaurant, which makes it a fun book to dip into randomly.
There are recipes for both cocktails and food items for each restaurant featured, and I plan to try some of them, but that is my one quibble with this book. There is no index in the back for the recipes. So if you want to try to find a recipe, you basically have to leaf through the whole book unless you remember which restaurant the recipe came from. Unfortunately, I don't.

[Barbara (Bobby) Title · Rating 4 out of 5]

For someone who grew up in the Los Angeles area - and can remember back to the '20s and '30s, and then personally experienced the "newer" restaurants (like in the 40's and 50's) this book is a real treat. It is full of pictures of old, distinctive restaurants, the famous patrons who frequented them, lots of pictures of "how the restaurants looked, inside and out, in the old days," copies of menus of the restaurant's hey-day (try a hot fudge sundae for 25 cents), wonderful commentary by author and chef George Geary, as well as some of the classic recipes these restaurants were noted for.

As big as a "coffee-table" book, this tome is not made for simply feasting one's eyes on but for reading and reminiscing. I barely got it into the house before I threw myself on the couch, opened the book and started the fun! Not only did I get to reminisce a lot, but I learned so much that I didn't know.

My parents were the ones who took advantage of all the ritzy restaurants in the '40-'50 era. I went to college there in the early 50's; sadly, my favorite place - Turner's Inn - where one could folk dance and eat all kinds of good German food, (which was certainly better than the cafeteria food at college) is long gone and not memorialized in this book. Nevertheless, that didn't spoil the book for me; I read every word.

In handing out stars, I left one star out, because I did try two of the recipes and found them not to be so tasty. Chef Geary notes that he updated them a bit to make them fit today's products and styles. However, that doesn't hurt the book at all. Reading it will be a real treat, for sure.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone into old Hollywood History and/or classic American cooking, this book is a true gem. I had so much fun stepping back in time. I remember a lot of these restaurants from my childhood. Others, I am sorry that I missed the opportunity to check out. The photos, writing and inside stories are too be treasured.