The Musso & Frank Grill

This restaurant is such an institution that it predates the city’s most iconic landmark—the Hollywood sign. In a way, Hollywood was born in Musso & Frank’s red booths, back when the famed boulevard was still a dirt road. The restaurant opened in 1919, and much of the menu remains from the first chef, Frenchman Jean La Rue, who used to specially prepare fettuccini alfredo for silent film stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Only two executive chefs have held the job since. Dinner dishes such as lobster thermidor and grenadine of beef take you back half a century, while chicken pot pie (on Thursdays only) and steaks, cooked on L.A.’s oldest open-fire grill, taste comfortingly familiar. Don’t miss brunch, which features Greta Garbo’s favorite Flannel Cake, a cross between a pancake and crepe invented by chef La Rue in the 1920s. In keeping with the authentic vintage spirit, martinis are strictly stirred—never shaken—and served with a mini glass sidecar containing the rest of the drink in its own tiny ice bucket. Pro tip: Order the off-menu slow-roasted prime rib, finished on the mesquite grill and served rare.

A visit to Musso & Frank Grill is better than any Hollywood history tour you’ll ever get. The restaurant, which has been open in much the same state as its current form since 1919, has served as a space for dealmaking—both over dinner and via the neighborhood’s first pay phone. Many a script draft has been read while writers waited with bated breath, sipping on the restaurant’s famously stiff martinis; and many contracts have been signed, propelling some of Hollywood’s most beloved stars. The menu, created by French chef Jean Rue for the restaurant’s opening, has remained largely unchanged, and features dishes such as rib eye steak, roast duck, and lamb chops, served by waiters who have been on hand since the 1950s and ‘60s.