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 night time — died in Belgrade, Serbia, on Saturday. He was 90.
Tana, born Dobrivoje Tanasijević, was an expert soccer participant earlier than opening the clubby red-sauce Italian restaurant in 1964, operating it till he bought it in 2009. By then, its popularity as a favourite of A-listers had been cemented by the common presence of devotees together with Elizabeth Taylor and Kirk Douglas.
The small print of Tana’s dying have been confirmed by L.A. historian Alison Martino, a buddy 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 dying — 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 dying.
“Dan lived a beautiful life, and we’ll preserve Dan Tana’s in his reminiscence endlessly,” Perencevic mentioned in a press release relayed by Martino, who was on the restaurant on Saturday night time.
Born close to Belgrade, Tana performed skilled soccer in Canada earlier than immigrating to america, the place he studied appearing. He debuted within the 1957 conflict movie “The Enemy Beneath,” in accordance with Selection. Whereas in search of appearing jobs, the commerce publication reported, Tana began as a dishwasher on the Villa Capri restaurant in Hollywood, earlier than finally changing 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 instructed the Hollywood Reporter in 2014 that he’d needed to create an institution the place stars might dine late into the night time.
“There was not a good restaurant serving till 1 a.m. You needed to go to a espresso store,” he instructed the Reporter.
However Dan Tana’s was not an instantaneous 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 Seventies, when the Troubadour, a neighboring music venue, started reserving large acts reminiscent of Elton John, drawing massive crowds to the world.
The restaurant, with its red-and-white-checkered tablecloths, and inexperienced neon signal, quickly turned an area establishment. It has lengthy been identified for the discreet manner it caters to the film stars and moguls who slide throughout its channeled crimson cubicles. George Clooney, former Lakers proprietor Jerry Buss and heiress Nicky Hilton are among the many eclectic bunch of notables with menu gadgets named for them, and the routine presence of celebrities has solely burnished the eatery’s aura — particularly amongst vacationers hoping for a desk.
However visitors aren’t essentially coming for four-star meals. The menu eschews the form of regional Italian cooking that has for years been a staple of the Los Angeles eating scene. As an alternative, Dan Tana’s provides comfort-food fare reminiscent of fettuccine Alfredo and hen Parmesan.
In 2016, Instances restaurant critic Jonathan Gold penned a memorable evaluation 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 dad and mom 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 hen parm, and instructed readers, “Dan Tana’s will not be about denying your self issues.”
Dan Tana’s on Santa Monica Boulevard is thought for dishes together with hen 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, partly as a result of it could nonetheless ship an enthralling, old-world expertise.
“When … you stroll in, the world stops,” she mentioned. “That’s what I really like about it — the historical past and the meals. The employees has been the identical: you could possibly go away L.A., come again after 5 years and are available in and they’re going to keep 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 night time. Flanked by tuxedoed servers and the maître d’, she introduced the founder’s dying, principally silencing the crowded eating room.
“We don’t have to be unhappy,” Martino mentioned. “Mr. Tana would need us to be joyful.”
Company raised their glasses. And the din of a busy restaurant quickly returned.
