Old Hollywood: Musso & Frank Grill

I’ve been online for probably 15 years, sharing my life, words and pictures. In the grand scheme of things, it is nothing. Rueben has been behind the bar at Musso & Frank Grill for almost 50 years. He has seen and heard so much. Stories of Raymond Chandler and other old-school Hollywood celebrities  spill from his smiling lips as easily as the vodka he pours.

Sidling up to the bar, I ordered a dirty martini as I surveyed the dining room. The room with the bar probably has never changed since it open. You are not allowed to eat at the bar unless it’s after 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Of course you may choose to have a cocktail at a dinner table but you wouldn’t be able to parry a few words with Rueben at the bar then. Or hear him exchange friendly verbal blows with his cohorts, one of whom must have been at Musso & Frank’s as long as Rueben and awarded all the ladies with a kiss on the hand. Charming dirty old man, as charming and dirty as my martini.

Ask for the menu and look at the liquor list. On the upper right are cocktail suggestions. I hadn’t looked at it when I ordered the Gibson. In my head though I was thinking about a Gimlet. Good thing I like cocktail onions.

Like…really like cocktail onions.

Musso & Frank Grill

6667 Hollywood Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90028-6292

(323) 467-7788