Old Menus: LA in the Eighties

November 5, 2018

The other day Francis Lam said to me, “LA in the eighties – it must have been such a great place to eat!”  A few hours later a young social media reporter said the same thing.

It made me remember what Jonathan Waxman, then chef at Michael’s in Santa Monica, told me at the time:  “I can feed my customers anything – so long as it’s not the same thing they ate last night.”

There was such a sense of excitement about food in the city, a sense that anything was possible. I’ve been rooting through one of my (many) boxes of old menus, to see what I could find.  Here are just a few examples of the kinds of special meals chefs were conjuring up.

A series of wine and food dinners featuring Haut Brion, which spread across the city at many different kinds of restaurants: New American, Italian and Japanese.

The first was at Michael’s

And finally, a lunch for the proprietors of the great Paris restaurant, Taillevant.  Wish I could remember where it took place. Anybody know?

Tomorrow, a group of great old menus from the Bay Area in the eighties.  And the next day, a few from France…  I might be having too much fun taking this walk down memory lane.

Categorised in: restaurants