When I was growing up, my favorite grown-up restaurant was SCANDIA in Hollywood. Run by Ken Hanson, this award-winning Scandinavian eatery was the place my family flocked to for holidays, not just birthday dinners and Sweet 16 luncheons, but also un-Hallmark events—like when I cut my head and all I wanted was Scandia’s Swedish meatballs so my dad got them on his way home from the set of “The Untouchables” episode he wrote.
At the time, there wasn’t a big L.A. take-out scene, but Scandia accommodated because it was elegant enough to be casual. Scandia was the treat I always chose when my mom and I collectively took the day off from life (for me, high school; for her, writing/editing and house stuff) to hang out together. And a few years after my mom died, I chose Scandia to go to the night a movie I wrote opened.