Even in Hollywood . . . Some Things Shouldn't Change

Before its 20th anniversary, Musso and Frank Grill was referring to itself as the “oldest restaurant in Hollywood.”

It still claims that title – as it anticipates its centennial celebration in 2019.

According to Paul Slansky, when Musso and Frank Grill “first opened for business, three months after World War II ended and four months before Prohibition began, it shared its neighborhood with avocado groves, eucalyptus trees and even a gently flowing stream.”

Then the motion picture industry converged on the area and everything changed – well, almost everything.

After marking 90 years in the same location, “Musso and Frank Grill is still the toast of Hollywood – fabulous as it ever was.”

“The last quarter-century has seen the demise of dozens of classic L.A. eateries, among them Chasen’s, the Brown Derby, Scandia, Schwab’s drugstore . . . the links to old Hollywood are slowly fading away . . .”

But there is still an important place in our towns for those special places like “Musso’s.” As Slasky writes:

“. . . its history imbues it with a kind of meta-coolness that transcends the ephemeral hipness of whatever the hot restaurant of the moment happens to be . . .”

To read more see ForbesLife, October 2006, p. 135.