At
8:30 we went down to Beverly Hills to La Dolce Vita on
Little Santa Monica Boulevard. La Dolce Vita has been in its
present location since 1966. George Raft was
one of the original partners. Sinatra ate
there three times a week when he was in town. Along with everyone
else who was anyone – Presidents, captains of industry
and those in the movie colony.
Its interior was designed by the late Lyle Wheeler,
the premiere set designer of 20th Century-Fox Studios who won about
8 Oscars and also designed the Beverly Hills Post Office (which has
been landmarked but recently vacated). Semi-circular red-tufted leather
banquettes, glazed brick walls which when JH tapped it, much to his
amazement, discovered to be hollow. Mr. Wheeler was, remember, an
art director.
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Al
Uzielli and David Simmer
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For years La
Dolce Vita was one of the most popular spots in Beverly Hills with
the movie crowd and the studio hotshots, as well as their guests
from New York and Europe. The original owners finally passed away
and the place was sold to a man who put his bookkeeper in charge.
Good-bye La Dolce Vita and all that; run into a state of bankruptcy
or near-bankruptcy.
Somewhere at that point, three young film producers, producing partners,
decided to buy the place. One of those men is a New York boy, Al
Uzielli, son of Anne Ford. That’s
how I heard about it. His aunt Charlotte told me. “Al’s
bought an interest in a restaurant.”
Already that sounds nervous-making to many ears. The pros and the
observant know that’s a tough business. I guess that was the
consensus.
So on this last night in L.A., we were just going to have a drink
and talk to Al about his new restaurant while JH took some pictures
of the place. When we arrived, Al was busy with customers – the
place was buzzing. So we had a drink at the bar, where the bartender Dave
Simmer was also a partner, producing and restaurant, with
Al. (Their third partner, Ben Myron, was in Las
Vegas — A La Dolce Vita in Vegas?).
Dave told us about their new place. He’s got a beachboy casual
manner, serves a cocktail like a pro and talks about his business
like a HBS educated venture capitalist. Hmm.
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Ruben,
the restaurant's maitre'd of 30 years
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La Dolce
Vita had long had a great reputation for its solid menu. Think “21” in
New York. The partners decided to keep it that way. They painted
some white wrought ironwork black, replaced the carpet with
a similar carpet (dark ruby), refurbished the walls and the
banquettes, wired them for the internet and telephones, put
in a brand new kitchen and opened the doors to the brand new
La Dolce Vita and otherwise kept everything the same as it
was when it opened thirty-seven years ago.
It was buzzing the night we were there (a Thursday), packed (seating
for 65). In the few weeks they’ve been re-opened, they’ve
seen Betty White, Barbara Sinatra, Nancy and Tina Sinatra,
Brendan Fraser, Nancy Reagan, Kirk and Anne Douglas, Betsy Bloomingdale,
Connie Wald, Bob Evans, Mel Adelson, Nikki Haskell, Andrew Lazar,
Neil Mortiz, Jeanne Morhn, Jackie Collins, Tita Cahn and
New York’s ubiquitous Alex Hitz. Many are
regulars once again.
The maitre d’ Ruben has been in charge for
the past 30 years and welcomes you as if you were a guest in his
home. Warm, dark and cozy, with great lighting flattering the fondest
hopes and wishes, La Dolce Vita is famous for their Northern Italian
cuisine, considered by many to be the best in Southern California.
I had Scampi. The who-cares-about-tomorrow-version. Couldn’t
stand it; it was so good. JH had Oso Bucco. Again, the same. The
service, they like to say, is second to none. Salads are prepared
tableside by those sleek gents in black tie. So’s the zabaglione.
That last paragraph is the promo paragraph, boldfaced but all true.
I’d gone to see Al and his restaurant with the natural (and
irrelevant) skepticism one can have about a risky business. After
talking to Dave the bartender/ producing partner (who explained
that since they were only open for dinner, they used the place
as their production office by day).
“ In our business, you spend a lot of time waiting for a phone call. This
is something to do while we’re waiting.”
Their approach is what impressed me most. Take a good old product,
suffering from neglect, return it to its formal status, the tried,
true, tested and very good. All quality. Streamline the necessities
(kitchen, electronic accessibilities), buy the best, serve the
best (“a full drink,” as Dave pointed out), and see
what happens.
“ Everything old is new again,” Peter Allen wrote,
and suddenly La Dolce Vita seemed like a natural. This is the kind of place that
all of the partners would like to go, a landmark restaurant where every meal
is prepared from scratch and any dish requested will be made to order whether
or not it’s on the menu. The best wines, and the unaparalled service. Ah,
Hollywood.
The place opens for business every evening except Monday. Reservations
are a very good idea. Mentioning NYSD will probably make no impression
at all but you can try. It doesn’t matter because these guys
are all pumped up about their new venture.
For Al Uzielli, it seems to me, it’s in his blood. While Henry
Ford II’s grandson, he is also the son of Gianni
Uzielli, once a famous restaurateur in Manhattan. A chip
offa the old, as they used to say. Whatever it is, he loves it.
So did I. So did JH, and from the looks of it, the crowd that night.
La
Dolce Vita
9785 (Little) Santa Monica Boulevard
Beverly Hills 90210
(310) 278-1845
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