There was one prerequisite for our birthday dinner for Robin. A red leather booth. Where to find one? So few places left with that old Rat Pack-era feel. I still miss them. One of my all-time favorites was Sneaky Pete’s on the Sunset Strip. It was next door to Whisky A Go-Go, where Duke’s Coffee Shop is now. Waitresses were dressed in really short-skirt barmaid outfits. A place where Johnny Carson sometimes sat in on drums with the musicians. How great was that? Good that it’s been closed for a hundred years, or it might make me miss my father too much. I went there with him all the time for steak and a baked potato with tons of butter, sour cream & chives.
Peggy had gone last week to Dan Tana’s, the dimly lit, checkered-tablecloth, celeb-oriented Italian place in West Hollywood. Libbie thought it was perfect for the Robin dinner. Since I never went to Dan Tana’s much back in the day, it would be a nostalgia-free zone – no memories with my dad to weigh me down. Still, I spent the rest of the week toying with the idea of changing restaurants. Many texts and phone calls back and forth between the girls. Robin said she would be just fine if we all met at Nate n’ Al’s, the Beverly Hills deli we all grew up in, but some of us just couldn’t envision a birthday celebration there. So, I never cancelled the reservation -- and here is how retro Dan Tana’s is: they never called “to confirm.”
Guess what time the dinner reservation was for? I’m laughing as I write this because I have friends that call me Granny for eating so early. 5:30. It’s a time that works for me and Robin. Robin calls this a “late lunch.” When we arrived at Dan Tana’s, they sat us in a booth facing the wrong way for some of us. We aren’t mobsters in fear of a hit, but we do like our backs against the wall so that we can watch the door.
We all decided ahead what we would order, so we feigned looking at the menu and quickly told the waiter what we wanted. First thing they brought us was the extra cheesy, sour dough garlic bread. Then came two orders of Caesar salad, split for four, which turned out to be way too much -- we should have ordered one.
As if stepping back in time, it was a heavy-on-the-iceberg-lettuce, extra garlicky salad. As each dish came out, I thought, “The 70’s called and they want their food back.” Don’t get me wrong, I’d go back to the 70’s in a heartbeat. And speaking of heartbeats, the rest of the meal was pretty artery-clogging. Whitefish, breaded, heavily drenched in butter – and after two pieces of that bread (not one like my dainty friends) -- was probably overkill.
I noted the time we were done eating -- 6:25. Now we got down to the serious business of catching up. Each of us pulled out our iPhones. Peggy showed us the dog she is adopting. Robin showed us a pic of the pit bull her mother just found. I showed Libbie a picture of her young daughter that I snapped in her home right before we went out, which nearly sent her into tears.
Then in unison we handed over our phones to the waiter to record the event, proof that we can all look back on twenty years from now -- provided none of us dies from the coronary-inducing meal we just consumed. Then we hopped into our cars. I looked at everyone and thought, wow, our friendships even pre-date our driving.
I’m thinking we will start a new trend of retro dining. Give our arteries a few months break and then meet up for one of these meals. Next one will be Lawry’s. I can’t wait for that salad, served in a chilled bowl, with the waitress in her throwback uniform pouring my Thousand Island dressing from high above the table.
Here are some restaurants I would go to and the dishes I would order -- if I owned a time machine: Scandia for Pyttipana; Chasen’s for Hobo Steak, but first the chilled seafood platter and cheesy toast; Belle-Vue for bouillabaisse, with frog legs to start; Chez Puce for the perfect crepe; Ma Maison for a simple watercress salad with perfect vinaigrette and a kiwi tart.
“Is this your first time in LA?”
“Maybe you can be a help to me.”
“Yeah?”
“I was wondering if there are any new good restaurants. You know, where the famous people go?”
“It’s probably safer to recommend the more established restaurants. There’s Ma Maison and La Scala, Scandia. And of the newer ones, I hear that Le Dome is quite nice.”
-- Dialogue from American Gigolo, 1980
Fredrica Duke shares how she discovered her love of food while growing up in Los Angeles on her blog Channeling the Food Critic in Me.