Musso & Frank Grill · Hollywood, Los Angeles
Musso & Frank Grill: a century of martinis in Hollywood
It opened as Frank's Café in 1919. More than a hundred years later the same family still owns it, the 1934 bar is still in use, and much of the original menu has never changed.
On September 27, 1919, the Hollywood Citizen announced a new restaurant at 6669 Hollywood Boulevard called Frank's Café. Its owner, Frank Toulet, later went into business with Joseph Musso, and the room became Musso & Frank Grill. It calls itself the oldest restaurant in Hollywood.
One family since 1927
In 1927 the founders sold the restaurant to two Italian immigrants, Joseph Carissimi and John Mosso. Mosso's three granddaughters and their children own and run it today.
The French chef Jean Rue wrote the menu, and much of it remains unchanged. Chicken pot pie is served on Thursdays, Welsh rarebit is a fixture, and the martini is the drink people come for.
The rooms
The Back Room opened in 1934. When the bar moved into what the restaurant calls the New Room in 1955, the Back Room's bar, light fixtures and furniture came with it, so the bar you sit at today dates to the 1930s.
Writers gathered here in the 1930s. The Los Angeles Conservancy notes that F. Scott Fitzgerald is reported to have proofread his novels in one of the booths, and that Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor were regulars in the 1950s.
A hundred years in
On the restaurant's hundredth birthday, September 27, 2019, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce gave it a star-shaped award on the boulevard. Behind the bar, longevity is the norm: bartender Ruben Rueda worked there for 52 years.
Musso & Frank is listed in both the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register, and it is recognized as a Legacy Business.
- Dinner Tuesday to Sunday
- Chicken pot pie on Thursdays
- The martini is the order
How we reported this
- The venue's website: https://www.mussoandfrank.com/history/
- Press coverage: https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/musso-frank-grill
- Press coverage: https://www.michiganpublic.org/2019-05-01/celebrities-need-comfort-food-too-a-hollywood-hangout-turns-100
- Press coverage: https://www.laweekly.com/musso-frank-grill-first-restaurant-to-get-star-on-hollywood-walk-of-fame-friday-sept-27th/
- Press coverage: https://www.laweekly.com/musso-frank-grill-cheers-to-another-100-years/
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