The Dresden: one Los Feliz family's lounge since 1954

Carl and Sara Ferraro came to Los Angeles from Cleveland and bought a restaurant on Vermont Avenue in 1954. They named it the Dresden, after the Dresden porcelain dolls that once decorated it. Their family has run it ever since, and Carl's son and grandson are in charge today.

The rooms

The building had been Pucci's Café from the 1930s and a paint store before that. Carl Ferraro remodeled it in the 1960s, and the rooms still carry that era. There is a lobby, a dining room with white leather booths, and a lounge with brown leather booths, faux rock walls and a grand piano. A hallway of headshots shows the famous faces that have come through.

Marty and Elayne

In the early 1980s a husband-and-wife lounge act, Marty and Elayne Roberts, began playing the Dresden, at first six nights a week. In 1996 they appeared in the film Swingers, and after it came out, Marty later recalled, the lines went down the block and never stopped. Marty Roberts died in January 2022 at 89.

The lounge's signature drink is the Blood and Sand. The restaurant also turns up in the final season of Mad Men.

Still on

The Dresden closed during the pandemic, and the family used the time to renovate in 2020. Today there is live music in the lounge on nearly a nightly basis, and the dining room recommends reservations.

• Dinner and lounge, Wednesday to Sunday
• Live music in the lounge most nights
• Reservations recommended in the dining room