Shall we meet at the Musso?
if you have seen Once upon a time in... Hollywood , also known as the ninth movie of Quentin Tarantino , you will have been left with many great moments, and you will have felt true nostalgia for being able to travel in time and wander through that Hollywood of the late 60s , as a camera assistant, a television series secondary or as a catering cook for filming. Anything to be part of that romanticized film industry.
Let's say you don't have the slightest desire to work in the movies, and yours is dry mythomania, the one that makes your free time more pleasant when you browse magazines about movies, music or history in general.
In short, one earns a very good living working on other things that are far from the spotlight, anxiety and self-esteem crises like those suffered by the unfortunate actor Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in one of the funniest roles of his entire career.
Musso & Frank Grill, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood
If you like to travel and visit those places that have been immortalized on the big screen, you have probably put a bare foot near the Trevi Fountain past midnight, keeping an eye on the night watchmen in the parked car, or Gave an inaudible mini moan at Katz's Deli as Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally while your partner has recorded you for a stories.
You may even have reached pay $70 for breakfast at the Chateau Marmont, in case you happen to run into Sofia Coppola , to tell him about the time you went up to the bar at the Park Hyatt in Tokyo, like Bill and Scarlett, to have a “wisuki” and that you sang More than this in a karaoke four blocks down on a fourth floor in Shinjuku.
If what you are looking for is an authentic piece of that Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard dyed by the orange sunset, There was always a booth (semicircle) at the **Musso & Frank steakhouse–Hollywood's oldest restaurant–** waiting for you with a steak and a Dry Martini.
there it is still the table reserved for Charlie Chaplin –That he ate there every day by the window, and whose seat was claimed years later by Steve McQueen– with his long-lived Mexican waiters, like Manny Aguirre, in a red jacket with black lapels, waiting to serve you, always with the same good attitude despite the fact that they have seen quite a few quiet nights over several decades.
Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) outside Musso & Frank
And thanks to the promotion shot that Quentin has given him in the supposedly “penultimate” film of his, Coinciding with his centenary, we can rest assured that they have a lot of customers left to serve these waiters in front of whom we should not cry.
The virtuous director and screenwriter already did it for us with Pulp Fiction, a film thanks to which we couldn't resist repeating that of being “evil man tyranny” every time we poked a tower of pancakes with maple syrup in a 1950s diner, whether in Palm Springs, like the one on the Kings Highway at the Ace Hotel, or in a Tommy Mels on Madrid's Gran Vía.
Now you can choose between pity you in the back parking lot of Musso & Frank Grill as if you were a finished actor or pretend to machine-gun Nazis in the main dining room – like the artist manager played by Al Pacino – while you lubricate your throat with a famous Whiskey Sour before ordering a steak with potatoes. I know that they are skilled at preparing a thermidor lobster in case you've had a Hawaiian burger from the Big Kahuna that same noon and you don't feel like repeating the veal.
Ribeye Steak with fries
when the gentlemen Joseph Musso and Frank Taoulet opened the premises in 1919 , were inspired by the typical steakhouses of New York, such as the famous Peter Luger of Williamsburg, and since its inception it was considered the meeting point of the cream of the crop of the incipient film industry , in which writers, producers and big stars could get together to lift projects off the ground.
It was practically a second home for all those stars under contract to the big studios that cured their loneliness after a long day of filming. in the company of those magnificent waiters who remembered each name as if it were their brothers'.
On the restaurant's official website, they tell the story of how some legendary fettucine from the Alfredo's restaurant in Rome appeared on their menu, thanks to the fact that Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford begged the Italian chef to give them the recipe to take to Musso's chef when they returned from their honeymoon in the Italian capital.
Its transfer in 1927 to Joseph Carissimi and John Mosso did not jeopardize the legacy of the establishment , If not the opposite. Mosso's descendants continue to run the restaurant, and have always understood its historical value within the Mecca of Cinema.
being two steps from the Kodak theater , on the night of the Oscars it must be a real show to occupy one of their tables, watching celluloid titans enter who prefer a quiet dinner instead of the excessive partying of Elton John's post-gala parties.
The day I went to Musso, about seven years ago, it was a Tuesday and there were no more than four tables occupied, with a rather subdued atmosphere, but I immediately recognized the man coming out of the bathroom as one of those secondary that you have seen on several occasions but whose name you never recorded in the credits. I couldn't even name a single movie I saw this older actor in.
But Musso & Frank did not disappoint. His Whiskey Sour was tasty, the meat was juicy and it is true that even on a slow night, I met a half-recognizable actor. Now that three of Hollywood's most legendary actors have been photographed under his roof, splendor reigns in the twilight of the gods.