OPEN: 1919–present
LOCATION: 6667 Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood, CA 90028
ORIGINAL PHONE: HO-0728 and HO-7-7788
CURRENT PHONE: (323) 467-7788
CUISINE: American
DESIGN: L.A. Smith
BUILDING STYLE: Regency
IN 1919, A RESTAURANT OPENED ON HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD NAMED FRANK’S FRANCOIS CAFÉ. Four years later, its owners, Frank Toulet and Joseph Musso, changed the name to the Musso and Frank Grill; four years after that, they sold the classic New York-style eatery to restaurateurs Joseph Carissimi and John Moss. Still in operation today, the Musso and Frank Grill has become one of the longest-running restaurants in the Los Angeles area.
After Carissimi and Moss purchased the restaurant in 1927, they began construction to renovate the space. They also refurbished the kitchen and added a state-of-the-art grill with cast-iron grates. Although its bars have bent a bit over the years, the original grill is still used today; all of the steaks prepared at the Musso and Frank Grill are seared on its blackened grates. Burning through about 250 pounds of mesquite wood per week, it can cook up to 80 items at one time, with a daily output of about 550. Its temperature ranges from 300°F to 600°F.
The restaurant has expanded a few times over the years. In 1934, the owners leased what they called the “Back Room,” a legendary private space reserved for the Hollywood elite. When the lease expired on the space in 1955, a larger “New Room” was built, modeled after the original Back Room. Everything that could be removed from the Back Room, including the bar, chandeliers, coat racks, booths, and tables, was transferred to the New Room. Whatever could not be transferred was replicated as closely as possible—including the Back Room’s skylights, which were recreated as faux skylights in the New Room to maintain the same feel.
Joseph Carissimi, Joseph Musso, and Frank Toulet named their restaurant Frank’s Francois Café before settling on the Musso and Frank Grill.
Stepping into the Musso and Frank Grill is like walking back into the year 1919. The place remains virtually unchanged. Its high ceilings with tin inlay, its red, high-backed booths, and its dark mahogany wood are all still the same. The coat and hat racks that separate the booths are the same ones that were first installed in 1919. The front bar still has seats attached to it, like what you might see in a diner. The bartenders and waiters don the same short red jackets with black trim, crisp white shirts, neatly tied bow ties, center-pressed black pants, and spit-shined black shoes as they did the day the venue opened. The restaurant’s pay phone was the first to be installed in Hollywood; this was where many industry deals were made.
The Musso and Frank Grill on Hollywood Boulevard, 1930.
Many claim to have seen and heard the ghosts of past patrons at the bar, such as Orson Welles and Charlie Chaplin. Some have seen faces in the mirrors while dining. Those who sit in booth 1 (Chaplin’s favorite spot) sometimes feel a strange presence there, as well as variations in the temperature.
The restaurant was known as a writer’s café, since many authors—including regulars like Nathanael West, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Bill Lippman—created literary works while tucked away in the private, high-backed booths, working undisturbed for hours. On Saturdays, a big group of them would come in and sit around the large table in the Back Room. The Los Angeles Times once claimed that if you came to the Musso and Frank Grill every day since its opening day, you would encounter every major writer imaginable.
This place was not meant for the big parties that stars held at other famous establishments like Chasen’s or Spago, but for good, hearty, honest food. Stars like Buddy Ebsen, Steve McQueen, Keith Richards, and Johnny Depp were regulars (and always requested that Sergio Gonzalez be their waiter). Instead of entering through the front door on Hollywood Boulevard, they would use a back entrance and go through the busy kitchen. They could also see what Chef Jean Rue was creating for the day’s special.
Like other restaurants frequented by the stars, the Musso and Frank Grill would reserve certain preferred tables for celebrities. Raymond Burr always sat at table 38, never at the bar. Elizabeth Taylor sat at table 34. Nancy Reagan preferred table 36, while Merv Griffin enjoyed table 37 with a glass of wine or a vodka tonic. Al Pacino used to sit in the corner at table 28, so he could see everyone who walked in. George Hamilton enjoyed eating at the bar. Legend has it that Charlie Chaplin once challenged Douglas Fairbanks to a horse race down Hollywood Boulevard, and the winner had to buy lunch at the restaurant. Chaplin won and ordered his favorite dish: grilled lamb kidneys.
Grilled lamb kidneys are still on the menu today, as are lamb shanks, braised short ribs, fillet of sole, and many of the other dishes that Chef Rue developed during his fifty-three years as head chef. It seems that Rue wasn’t the only employee to make the restaurant his life’s work. Chef Hellman served for thirty-one years. Indolfo Rodriquez has manned the behemoth grill since 1983. Ruben Rueda has been working at the restaurant for sixty years.
The Musso and Frank Grill is home to many generations. Today, the place is run by Musso’s three granddaughters and their children. Chef JP Amateau is only the third chef to have held the position since the restaurant opened. It’s in his blood; his father, Rod, a Hollywood writer and director, was a regular at the eatery. Waiter Sergio Gonzalez has been working at the Musso and Frank Grill for forty-one years; after stumbling upon the position by filling in for his uncle, it became the first and only job Gonzalez ever held in his life.
Because of the age of the restaurant and the operation of the bar before, during, and after Prohibition, drinks and cocktails are a major part of the dining experience at the Musso and Frank Grill. Behind the bar is Manny Aguirre, who has been the bartender at the establishment for more than twenty years. A star in his own right, he is known as the “Cocktail Ambassador of Hollywood” (and has printed pens to prove it). Once I sat at the bar in the Writer’s Room and asked him if he made old-fashioneds. “I invented them!” he replied—and I would not doubt it. Manny can recall the stars’ preferred drinks: Bette Davis liked a whiskey sours; Drew Barrymore favors champagne. Once, Francis Ford Coppola asked him why the restaurant didn’t serve his namesake wine from Coppola Winery. The next week, it was on the wine list.
The oldest restaurant in Hollywood, 2013.
In 2013, the New York Times declared that the Musso and Frank Grill was one of the top ten “World’s Greatest Old Dining Institutions,” the only Southern California location on the list. In August 2012, the restaurant’s Gibson made the list as one of the top twenty most iconic drinks in Los Angeles. It was also named the number-one spot to order a martini in L. A.
Today, the restaurant’s motto is: “The history will bring you in; the food and service will keep you coming back.” Nothing could be more true. 
