Going Down the Restaurant Memory Lane of My Childhood
Ever since I can remember, I’ve had a sophisticated food palette. My parents introduced me to fine dining mostly because on the weekends the housekeeper was off, and they wanted to go out, not once but twice. Saturday was for more formal dining, and Sunday was always casual.

Of course in the fifties and sixties we were not offered the complex varieties of the cuisines of today, but we still enjoyed our food adventures just as much. The most popular restaurants in my city were on La Cienega Boulevard, well known as Restaurant Row. Our two favorites were Lawry’s the Prime Rib and Steers for Steaks. Lawry’s has always been acknowledged for their savory prime rib and signature salad, tossed at the table in an ice cold spinning bowl. Steers offered a succulent culotte steak and fresh garlic bread with copious amounts of butter that I can still taste today. Restaurant Row inspired Pacific Southwest Airlines to offer a weekend excursion built around it

When we didn’t feel like driving, we could take just a short two-block walk from our home and arrive at several of our favorite weekend dining spots. Cafe Swiss on Rodeo Drive is where I tasted my first cuisses de grenouille (frog legs) with butter, lemon and parsley and fell in love with escargot, vichyssoise and crepe suzette.

Ah Fongs on Beverly Drive was our favorite for Chinese food. Their Beef Soo Chow and Rumaki were out of this world, and in the late sixties it was here where I tried Chinese Chicken Salad for the first time. It was the only Chinese Restaurant around, and it was very popular for Sinatra and the rest of the Hollywood elite.

A favorite of mine was an Italian restaurant a few blocks west called Peppino’s. I loved the red leather booths dressed in white formal tablecloths and the tuxedo-clad waiters with their Italian accents, but what always drew me back was the big cart pulled up to the table by a special chef who would toss the Caesar Salad into a giant wooden bowl — one-minute eggs, olive oil, lemon juice, fresh parmesan cheese, garlic, lemon juice and anchovies.

Fine restaurants fifty years ago offered an experience that is rarely available in even the better of the fashionable restaurants of today. Among the things I miss the most are a quiet ambiance, professional waiters and waitresses whose goal in life was pleasing their customers, fine linen and tableware, and the absence of cell phones.
['Danna Reich Colman']
['Food', 'Beverly Hills', 'Recipe']