Welcome To The Glamorous Romanoff’s!
I love the golden age of Hollywood – and the legendary hangout for the rich and famous – and the Beverly Hills restaurant Romanoff’s was one of them!
Imagine sitting at dinner and watching Cary Grant light someone’s cigarette…what glamour!
From 1941 to 1962, Romanoff’s was THE place to be seen in Beverly Hills, and perhaps one reason was its very unique owner!
Harry F. Gerguson was known as Michael Romanoff – a Hollywood restaurateur, best remembered as the owner of Romanoff’s, a Beverly Hills restaurant that was Hollywood’s playground in the 40’s and 50’s!
Hilariously. Romanoff generally snubbed his clientele, and preferred to lunch with his dogs!
Romanoff claimed to be a member of Russia’s royal House of Romanov, although it was widely known to be untrue!
This photo cemented the restaurant’s reputation: the legendary shot of International Star Sophia Loren checking out Sex Kitten Jayne Mansfield!
Stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable made it the town’s hottest spot – and a good friend of mine sent me a menu from the restaurant!
While Romanoff’s featured a typical country club-style menu with items like Waldorf salad, tomatoes stuffed with crab, filet mignon, frog legs, eggs Benedict and sausages on toast, the restaurant became known for its chocolate soufflés, which were served to each guest in an individual portion!
Some of these great photos came from a terrific website I found, so a very big thanks to Author Martin Turnbull – see his story all about Romanoffs here:
Turnbull has written great novels about Hollywood’s golden era, and I picked one up to show my support!
The Garden on Sunset is the first in Martin Turnbull’s series of historical novels set during Hollywood’s golden age. It’s terrific, go check them out to relive vintage Hollywood!
Romanoff’s was from a time when stars went to “happening” Hollywood restaurants like Musso & Frank:
Musso & Frank just celebrated its 105th Anniversary, and I love that they continue to be a hip Hollywood hangout – they were prominently featured in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time In…Hollywood.”
Let’s toast with one of their Martinis!
See their iconic menu, and what I ate when I was there, by clicking on my story here:
I also cooked two of the iconic dishes from Musso & Frank’s terrific cookbook, including this dish requested by a big movie star:
I share the “secret” recipe from Rome’s REAL “Alfredo” here:
Sadly, there are very few places that survive this long in Hollywood:
Chasen’s was another classic Tinseltown restaurant, famous for their chili, which was so beloved that the legendary Elizabeth Taylor had it freshly flown to Rome while she was filming “Cleopatra” there!
Here’s the story of this classic Hollywood haunt – and that famous chili recipe that Liz loved so much, so you can make it at home yourself:
Modern Beverly Hills has some terrific restaurants still, including one that made me a truly unique pizza!
Yes, there are lemon slices on this pizza! And it was incredible! See where I got this amazing slice by clicking here:
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Categories: Alcohol And Bars, Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Books / Media, Cookbooks, Eat This!, Fine Dining, Food, Food Writing, Recipes, Restaurants, Travel, Wacky Food, World's Wildest Food
Bite! Eat! Repeat! 
I agree with you! I love the Golden Age of Hollywood!
Uhuh! Should very definitely not admit to it but have been to all of these . . . compared to beloved Continental restaurants the menus were usually too big for ‘really’ fine food to arrive on the table but it surely was fun to ‘secretly’ scan the famous faces suddenly at the next table 🙂 ! Managed Liz Taylor multiple times and Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis and Peter Lawford even managed a ‘pass’ on probably a boring night for him 🙂 ! Thanks for the memories !!!
Some terms are over-used, but this was the real golden age of celebrity! By comparison, today’s celebrities are tacky and tasteless.
Best wishes, Pete.
Well stated Pete..they are for the most part indeed
I love these pics of the golden days of Hollywood!
Hi John, you’ve shared some very interesting information here. I wrote to Sophia Loren when I was a girl and she sent me a signed photograph.
WOW! What a great gesture by her! And what a great childhood memory of you as well…thank you for sharing that!
😊💝