Dan Tana, the restaurateur whose eponymous Santa Monica Boulevard eatery has for many years been a Hollywood hotspot — one with dishes named for celebrities who’re liable to be there on any given evening — died in Belgrade, Serbia, on Saturday. He was 90.
Tana, born Dobrivoje Tanasijević, was knowledgeable soccer participant earlier than opening the clubby red-sauce Italian restaurant in 1964, operating it till he bought it in 2009. By then, its fame as a favourite of A-listers had been cemented by the common presence of devotees together with Elizabeth Taylor and Kirk Douglas.
The main points of Tana’s loss of life have been confirmed by L.A. historian Alison Martino, a good friend of the restaurant’s present proprietor, Sonja Perencevic, who bought it from its founder. Martino, who runs the eatery’s Fb web page — the place a message posted Saturday introduced Tana’s loss of life — mentioned that Perencevic was shut with the previous proprietor and had been with him in Belgrade on Friday. Martino mentioned she didn’t know the reason for loss of life.
“Dan lived a beautiful life, and we are going to hold Dan Tana’s in his reminiscence endlessly,” Perencevic mentioned in a press release relayed by Martino, who was on the restaurant on Saturday evening.
Born close to Belgrade, Tana performed skilled soccer in Canada earlier than immigrating to the US, the place he studied appearing. He debuted within the 1957 warfare movie “The Enemy Beneath,” in accordance with Selection. Whereas searching for appearing jobs, the commerce publication reported, Tana began as a dishwasher on the Villa Capri restaurant in Hollywood, earlier than ultimately turning into the maitre d’ at La Scala in Beverly Hills. That lined him up for a profession in meals.
Earlier than lengthy, he was opening Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood, close to the jap fringe of Beverly Hills. He informed the Hollywood Reporter in 2014 that he’d wished to create an institution the place stars may dine late into the evening.
“There was not a good restaurant serving till 1 a.m. You needed to go to a espresso store,” he informed the Reporter.
However Dan Tana’s was not a direct hit.
Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood.
(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Instances)
It will definitely gained a following after actor Richard Burton, a seven-time Academy Award nominee who married Taylor the yr the restaurant opened, turned an everyday presence. It acquired a jolt within the Nineteen Seventies, when the Troubadour, a neighboring music venue, started reserving massive acts akin to Elton John, drawing giant crowds to the realm.
The restaurant, with its red-and-white-checkered tablecloths, and inexperienced neon signal, quickly turned an area establishment. It has lengthy been recognized for the discreet manner it caters to the film stars and moguls who slide throughout its channeled pink cubicles. George Clooney, former Lakers proprietor Jerry Buss and heiress Nicky Hilton are among the many eclectic bunch of notables with menu objects named for them, and the routine presence of celebrities has solely burnished the eatery’s aura — particularly amongst vacationers hoping for a desk.
However friends aren’t essentially coming for four-star meals. The menu eschews the kind of regional Italian cooking that has for years been a staple of the Los Angeles eating scene. As a substitute, Dan Tana’s presents comfort-food fare akin to fettuccine Alfredo and rooster Parmesan.
In 2016, Instances restaurant critic Jonathan Gold penned a memorable overview of Dan Tana’s, relating the time he took a highschool crush there on a date, solely to embarrass himself: “The waiter laughed after I tried to order wine, after which served us Sprite in wine glasses. The invoice got here to $20 greater than I had in my pockets. She groaned and pulled out the bank card her mother and father had given her for emergencies.”
As for the meals, Gold referred to as a few of it “peculiar,” however famous, “Weirdly sufficient, I don’t care,” noting the restaurant’s place in L.A.’s culinary firmament. He went on to spotlight dishes together with the rooster parm, and instructed readers, “Dan Tana’s just isn’t about denying your self issues.”
Dan Tana’s on Santa Monica Boulevard is understood for dishes together with rooster Parmesan.
(Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Instances)
Within the years since Tana bought his restaurant and retired to Belgrade, a number of landmark L.A. haunts have shuttered, Greenblatt’s Deli, the Unique Pantry Cafe and Papa Cristo’s Greek Grill & Market amongst them. Dan Tana’s has endured, Martino mentioned, partially as a result of it could possibly nonetheless ship a captivating, old-world expertise.
“When … you stroll in, the world stops,” she mentioned. “That’s what I like about it — the historical past and the meals. The workers has been the identical: you can go away L.A., come again after 5 years and are available and they’ll bear in mind your favourite drink.”
Martino despatched The Instances a video of an impromptu toast she made in Tana’s honor on the restaurant on Saturday evening. Flanked by tuxedoed servers and the maître d’, she introduced the founder’s loss of life, principally silencing the crowded eating room.
“We don’t must be unhappy,” Martino mentioned. “Mr. Tana would need us to be pleased.”
Visitors raised their glasses. And the din of a busy restaurant quickly returned.
