OPEN: 1956–present
LOCATION: 9455 S. Santa Monica Boulevard Beverly Hills, CA 90028
ORIGINAL PHONE: CR5-9436
CURRENT PHONE: (310) 275-0579
BUILDING STYLE: 1950s Storefront
CUISINE: Italian
The dining room at La Scala, 1962.
IN 1918, CEFERINO CARRION WAS BORN IN SANTANDER, A CITY ON THE NORTHERN COAST OF SPAIN. When he was nineteen years old, he stowed away on a merchant vessel bound for New York City. Like so many immigrants, Carrion started working at a restaurant in the city, making four dollars per day busing tables. Worried that he would be found without papers and forced to go back to Spain, Carrion headed west. When the Korean War offered him an opportunity to legalize his status with only two years of service, he jumped at the chance.
Carrion changed his name to Jean Leon and, after his service, moved back to Hollywood, where he felt he could make something of himself. He landed his first job at Villa Capri, a restaurant off of Hollywood Boulevard. Over time, Leon became friends with all of the restaurant’s star patrons, including Frank Sinatra, Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn Monroe, Gene Kelly, and James Dean. Leon and Dean began making plans to go into business together and open their own high-end Italian restaurant. Together, they chose the name La Scala, which they thought sounded rich.
On September 30, 1955, Leon received word that Dean had died in an automobile accident in Cholame, California. Leon and Dean had planned to sign a contract for the new restaurant the following Monday. However, Leon decided to follow through with the plans for La Scala. He took out a loan and, on April 1, 1956, opened the restaurant in Beverly Hills.
La Scala was an instant success in the Hollywood circles. Fred Astaire, Marlon Brando, Humphrey Bogart, and all of Villa Capri’s clientele were fans. Robert Wagner proposed to Natalie Wood over pasta at the restaurant. Leon reportedly delivered an order to Marilyn Monroe’s house at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood on August 4, 1962—the night before her death.
In 1962, Leon took a trip back to his homeland, where he bought a beautiful estate and winery in the Catalan wine-growing region of Penedes. They still produce the wine that bears his name (Chateau Leon) and serve it at La Scala.
Presidents John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan were also regulars at the restaurant. President Reagan chose Leon’s wine to serve at his inaugural gala in 1981, and President Kennedy frequently had Leon and his chef, Emilio Nunez, flown in for state dinners in Washington.
In 1985, Leon opened La Scala Trattoria in Brentwood. This location was more family-friendly, with lower price points. In 1987, La Scala received a top rating from the Los Angeles Times for its unique bread. While many of the restaurants in the area served Pioneer Bread, La Scala served a very special Italian bread called pane di campagna (“bread of the peasants who work in the fields”). They created three different styles of the bread: pane-filone (baguette-style), ciabatta (a wide, flat loaf), and pagnota (a round loaf). The restaurant was also known for its chopped salad, which is still the number-one lunchtime salad at La Scala today.
In 1989, Leon moved La Scala to 434 Canon Drive in Beverly Hills, which is about a six-minute drive east from the original location. Today, celebrites still flock to the restaurant. Everyone has been spotted there, from Barbra Streisand and Gwyneth Paltrow to Rihanna and Justin Bieber. In 2014, the paparazzi closed down Canon Drive just to get pictures of a pregnant Kim Kardashian exiting the restaurant and crossing the street.
La Scala’s rule that an entire party must be present in order to be seated caused some conflict in 2013, when Diana Ross came into the restaurant and said that her daughter would be joining her soon. The La Scala staff informed Ross of their rule, but she went to the corner booth and sat down anyway. Leon’s daughter, Gigi, explained to Ross that, at La Scala, they treated everyone the same way, whether they were famous or not. “If people jump the line, we don’t serve them,” she told the singer. Ross waited until her daughter arrived and then stormed out of the restaurant.
Jean Leon died in 1996. Today, La Scala is owned and managed by Gigi. The quality of the restaurant’s ingredients has never faltered in its long history, and it continues to set the bar for fine Italian fare in Beverly Hills. 
Guests at Janet Leigh’s birthday party, including Tony Curtis (center, standing in white jacket) and Sammy Cahn (seated, wearing glasses), 1958.
John McGiver, Paul Ford, Lewis Charles, and Dean Martin on the set of Who’s Got the Action at La Scala, 1962.