OPEN: 1977–2006
LOCATIONS: 903 N. La Cienega Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90069
ORIGINAL PHONE: (310) 652-9770
CUISINE: French
DESIGN: Valerian Ryker
BUILDING STYLE: Parisian
CURRENTLY: Nobu Los Angeles
L’Orangerie on La Cienega Boulevard, 1980s.
NESTLED BETWEEN DESIGNER FURNITURE SHOPS AND CLOTHING STORES ON THE BUSY LA CIENEGA BOULEVARD, L’ORANGERIE WAS KNOWN FOR ITS ELEGANT PARISIAN AMBIENCE. Architect Valerian Ryker had aimed for a light and airy feel in the 120-seat restaurant, which he had achieved with tall, arched windows throughout the place. The high ceilings and pure-white walls lent a refined atmosphere to the interior, and the fabric scheme featured the light colors of a Monet painting: peach, leaf green, light yellow, and apricot. The tables were laid with silver, crystal, Limoges dinnerware, and eighteenth-century French pewter lanterns, all reflected in the many mirrors that hung on the walls. Custom-made panels of blue-and-white Portuguese tiles with illustrations of seventeenth-century orangeries decorated the bar. Outside on the garden patio, the adjacent buildings were hidden by trellises covered with climbing roses and gardenias. A beautiful waterfall completed the idyllic setting.
L’Orangerie’s two chefs, Jean Grondin and Jean-Luc Renault, had come from Paris. Their tasting menu, the “Menu Royal,” changed with the season and offered eight to ten courses. At $140 per person, it was the most expensive tasting menu in the city at the time. The “Les Viandes” menu featured entrées such as herb-crusted loin of beef, roasted rack of lamb, and steamed chicken and vegetables. A selection of fish dishes was also offered, prepared with simple yet flavorful sauces used in the south of France. The dessert menu featured a “Chocolate Lovers” grouping of four delectable pastries.
In 1992, jeweler Harry Winston and luxury hotelier Relais & Châteaux underwrote an extravagant Oscar party at L’Orangerie. The guest list was a true cross-section of Hollywood, with Billy Wilder, Diane Ladd, Laura Dern, Jacqueline Bisset, Robin Leach, and Joanne Carson in attendance. Jane Seymour took notes on Burgundy wines at her table. Dom Pérignon flowed freely, followed by a consommé of peas, poached turbot, and lamb with truffles. Three desserts—warm chocolate tart, petits fours, and pepper-flavored ice cream with bananas and passion fruit—rounded out the menu. The dress code for the evening specified that men should wear tuxes with polka-dot cummerbunds and women should wear their finest jewelry.
If you wanted to dine somewhere very special in the city, L’Orangerie was the place. President and Mrs. Reagan, Betsy Bloomingdale, and Kirk and Anne Douglas were regulars. In the late 1990s, L’Orangerie was the last of the elegant L.A. restaurants to drop its coat and tie requirement.
The most difficult years for the restaurant were 2004 and 2005, when it struggled with employee lawsuits over pooled tips and a general drop in demand; diners were seeking out a more relaxed dining experience. In 2005, Chef Nobu Matsuhisa was looking for a new location close to the Beverly Hills-West Hollywood border to open his West Coast flagship restaurant. After almost thirty years in the space, L’Orangerie owner Gerard Ferry sold the restaurant—including its well-stocked wine cellar—for an undisclosed price to Matsuhisa and his investing partner, Robert De Niro.
L’Orangerie served its last meal on New Year’s Eve, 2006. Two days later, the Nobu group came in and began to transform the ornate French restaurant into a streamlined stone-and-wood Asian design, similar to the other Nobu locations. 
L’Orangerie owners Virginie and Gerard Ferry, Chef Jean-François Meteigner, and maître d’ Gilles Lagourgue, early 1980s.