L.A.'s Legendary Restaurants ─ Celebrating the Famous Places Where Hollywood Ate, Drank, and Played

L.A.'s Legendary Restaurants is an illustrated history of dozens of landmark eateries from throughout the City of Angels. From such classics as Musso & Frank and The Brown Derby in the 1920s to the see-and-be-seen crowds at Chasen's, Romanoffs, and Ciro's in the mid-20th century to the dawn of California cuisine at Ma Maison and Spago Sunset in the 1970s and '80s,L.A.'s Legendary Restaurants celebrates the famous locations where Hollywood ate, drank, and played.

Author George Geary leads you into the glamorous restaurants inhabited by the stars through a lively narrative filled with colorful anecdotes and illustrated with vintage photographs, historic menus, and timeless ephemera. Over 100 iconic recipes for entrees, appetizers, desserts, and drinks are included.

But L.A.'s Legendary Restaurants contains much more than the fancy, high-priced restaurants favored by the Hollywood cognoscenti. The glamour of the golden age of drive-ins, drugstores, nightclubs, and hotels are also honored. What book on L.A. restaurants would be complete without tales of ice cream sundaes at C.C. Brown's, cafeteria-style meals at Clifton's, or a mai tai at Don the Beachcomber?

Most of the locations in L.A.'s Legendary Restaurants no longer exist, but thanks to George Geary, the memories are still with us.

George Geary is an award-winning chef, best-selling author and renowned educator. A former pastry chef for the Walt Disney Company, Geary is a Certified Culinary Professional, and was recently chosen as the Culinary Educator of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. He is perhaps best known for creating all of the cheesecakes for The Golden Girls and other top-rated television programs. Geary has worked as a critic and/or judge for ABC’s The Taste with Anthony Bourdain, The American Baking Competition with Jeff Foxworthy, Hell's Kitchen, Supermarket Superstar and many other popular television shows. He also teaches cooking classes aboard Holland America Lines.

For over 30 years Geary has been involved with the judging of culinary contests for major food manufacturers such as Canola Producers, Veg-All, Hormel Foods, the Hershey Company, Knott’s Berry Farm Foods, Ghirardelli Chocolate, Fleischmann’s Yeast, San Diego Union Tribune, ABC News, and many more. From 1982–2010, George was the Culinary Coordinator of the Los Angeles County Fair.

Geary is the author of nine cookbooks including: The Cheesecake Bible, The Complete Baking Cookbook, and 125 Best Cheesecake Recipes. He is presently the featured chef on the San Diego Living television show on the CW Network. Geary lives in Los Angeles.

Barbara Fairchild is the former editor-in-chief for Bon Appétit magazine.