Make Them Come to You

Everyone wants to live in Beverly Hills but do they want to dine there? Now they do.

- JOEL STEIN

Of course I’ve eaten in Beverly Hills— just not because I wanted to. I wind up there because it’s where my doctors and agents are, or, most of all, it’s a compromise between the east and west sides of Los Angeles. But I’m never excited about it.

For most of its existence, Beverly Hills’ 5.71 square miles have been some of the coolest in America. But over the years, as Los Angeles has spread east, power players might still live in Beverly Hills, but their meetings have relocated to Craig’s or the San Vincente Bungalows, in West Hollywood, and their dinner reservations entailed journeys to Silver Lake, Los Feliz, or Downtown L.A. The idea of Beverly Hills as a dining destination felt increasingly like the daydream of a Midwesterner who had never been to California.