LAFeature
Musso & Frank Is Reopening + 5 Places To Have A Steak & Martini This Week
Time to brush up on the art of eating, drinking, and glaring at people.
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Musso & Frank, one of LA’s oldest and most recognizable restaurants, is officially reopening after a year-long hiatus on Thursday, May 6th. The Old Hollywood spot will be doing indoor dining with red booths and all, at 50% capacity per Orange Tier guidelines, with strict social distancing implementation and an assisted parking system in lieu of their old valet, according to Deadline.
That said, everything else is staying exactly the same. Which means we can all prepare for waiters in red jackets and bowties, massive plates of steak, that weird phone booth in the corner, and several rounds of the greatest martini on earth. We recommend booking your reservation now, as weekend time slots are already filling up through June.
If you need your steak-and-martini fix sooner than that, keep scrolling.
5 Spots to Eat, Drink, and Glare at People This Week
photo credit: Britt Lucas
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Gigi’s is a tough reservation to get right now, but if you aren’t able to snag one, you can always just sidle up to one of the booths, order a martini, and go to town on fantastic steak-frites. Don’t hesitate to ask for an extra order of their thin, perfectly-crunchy fries.
Dear John’s is an Old Hollywood classic in Culver City that, prior to the pandemic, had just reopened after a complete refurbishment brought the space back to its glorious heyday. Consider this a re-re-opening. The place used to be an old hangout spot for Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, and it’s easy to see why - the drinks are strong, the steak is seared, and its dimly-lit interior is the perfect place to burrow into a leather booth and get hammered.
Chez Jay is an old dive bar in Santa Monica that recently underwent a hefty outdoor renovation. The result is one of our favorite new-ish patios in the neighborhood, complete with fire pits, string lights, and big comfy couches to snuggle on. The martinis are strong and cold, and while you can’t go wrong with any cut of meat here, the $30 butter steak is our favorite for when we want to intimidate the tables around us.
This newer spot on Rose Ave. in Venice serves excellent steakhouse classics, like a killer dry-aged 32 oz. porterhouse and the requisite sides - namely, a big potato pancake stuffed with onion and sour cream. It’s the perfect dish to have in front of you while posted up on the large wrap-around bar with another martini on the way.
photo credit: Matt Gendal
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If you consider yourself a martini drinker and haven’t spent a night at Dan Tana’s, then you actually aren’t a martini drinker. Sorry, we don’t make the rules, we just write about them. A meal at this classic Weho Italian restaurant is an LA rite of passage, and while everyone around you is probably eating chicken parm and caesar salad, you’re getting the Dabney Coleman, a juicy 20 oz. New York steak.
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