Put on your napkin, and be delighted with five vintage restaurants in L.A!
Los Angeles might be a city obsessed with newness, but it also has managed to retain a host of classic restaurants that are all but impervious to trends. Whether you’re looking for 1940s-era glamour or mid-century kitsch, there’s a restaurant around these parts that can authentically deliver it!
Continue scrolling and see where you have to start eating your way through L.A.’s delicious culinary history!
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Clearman’s Steak ’n Stein/North Woods Inn
Where do you go for an off-the-beaten-path food experience that brings together an old-school L.A. vibe, bizarre set-designer whimsy and good-for-all-ages American steakhouse grub? How about the eclectic trio of cabinlike, mid-century restaurants in Covina, San Gabriel and La Mirada: Clearman’s North Woods Inns. As you step into a North Woods Inn, you’ll slowly pull open a heavy wooden door and peer into a dimly lit, richly decorated room of rustic log walls, massive taxidermied bears, jewel-toned stained glass, sawdust-strewn floors and eccentric hunting-lodge kitsch.
Colombo’s Italian Steakhouse & Jazz Club
Like many of its surrounding neighborhoods, Eagle Rock has had a slew of trendy eateries open in recent years, with varying degrees of success. But if you want a glimpse into the real heart and soul of the neighborhood, there’s no better place to find it than at Colombo’s Italian Steakhouse & Jazz Club, a restaurant that has been serving this community since 1954. People of all ages and all walks of life gather in the big circular booths and dine on old-school, upscale Italian cooking while listening to live jazz, which begins at 4:30 or 5:30 p.m. nightly.
Dan Tana’s
With its red-and-white checkered tablecloths, black-tuxedoed waiters and well-preserved regulars from roughly the time it opened back in 1964, Dan Tana’s could be a favorite dinner-and-drinks spot from The Godfather. The old-school feel draws people famous and not so famous, and long waits are common. The overflow heads to the long wooden bar, a classic L.A. hangout and celebrity-watching perch. It’s a great spot to sit, sip a stiff drink and observe the dining room, where you might catch a glimpse of George Clooney, Rupert Murdoch, Clint Eastwood or other notables chowing down.
Lawry’s the Prime Rib
Open since 1938 and specializing in tableside service, the dining rooms are ensconced in wood paneling, and countryside murals take you back to Ye Olde England. The dishes prepared at your table range from prime rib carving to baked potato prep. The spinning salad with “vintage dressing” is a Lawry’s original, and a little on the sweet side.
Musso & Frank
Step out of the tourist trap–laden, frat-boy noise of Hollywood Boulevard, and step into what is basically a time capsule — Los Angeles circa 1948. Musso & Frank is famous as the hangout of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Chandler and William Faulkner, and it still delivers the same vibe, the same vintage style service and the same completely outdated food that it has been serving for 94 years.
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