The Restaurant that Changed Everything
And a really cool way to play cards.
If you’ve got a restaurant-obsessed friend who likes to play cards, the Gourmand 52 Deck is the perfect gift. Created by three students at the University of Pennsylvania, Maggie Tang, Alaina Chou and Amy Yang, each card is hand-drawn with a picture of some iconic New York restaurant; they include Katz’s, Russ & Daughters, Via Carota, King and Estela. A portion of every sale goes to ROAR (Restaurants Organizing, Advocating & Rebuilding). Play on!
When I told my editors at New West that Michael McCarty was opening a restaurant in Los Angeles and the chefs were all going to be young, American and college-educated, it was enough to sell the story. It was a revolutionary idea: in those days chefs were typically old European men who’d been working in restaurants since their teens.
But that' wasn’t all. Michael McCarty wanted to use American products. Among the other firsts at Michael’s: he dressed his waiters in Calvin Klein and put excellent art on the walls (Hockney, Diebenkorn, Jasper Johns). He also pioneered a complicated computerized system to keep track of sales and supplies.
Michael’s chefs all went on to fame and fortune. His opening team included Ken Frank (who quickly left), Jonathan Waxman and Mark Peel. Before long Nancy Silverton joined them as pastry chef.
Michael was not happy with my article. He complained to my boss (Colman Andrews) that I’d misquoted him about crusty old Frenchmen who are mean. The thing is, we were all so young, and I spent so much time hanging around that they forgot I was a reporter and let down their guard. But I had everything on tape.
As for me, I spent the best part of a year working on this piece (the restaurant took a lot longer to open than anticipated) for the princely sum of $500. But it was a wonderful education — and I had a terrific time.
Michael, of course, went on to open the watering hole for New York’s media set — but that’s another story.
I think the first one is Michael’s opening menu. The second one is four years later, in 1983. It’s interesting that the dishes are almost the same, but the prices have nearly doubled. And that by 1983, Michael had done away with tipping and added a 17% service charge.
The last menu is, rather obviously, from a Haut Brion tasting in 1989. Interesting, isn’t it, how the food (and the descriptions) had evolved in six years?
Trying to keep current and God forbid profitable, since the pandemic (and maybe a little before), the menu at Michael's has pivoted to being a little less formal. The back patio regardless of whether the menu is fancy or not is still one of the prettiest rooms in Los Angeles and since the demise of Hal's, the modern art collection in the front and upstairs is unparalleled in Los Angeles.
http://www.michaelssantamonica.com/#menus-section
The book cited below has a chapter on Michael's including a nice cover photo with Michael McCarty and some now legendary chefs. There is even some favorable mention of a young and talented writer that people seem to like on this site.
https://www.amazon.com/Chefs-Drugs-Rock-Roll-Profession/dp/0062225855/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Michael's is still around. Not that you would know from the L.A. Times. It's really a shame that veteran restaurants like this seem to be being overlooked in the local press. The Los Angeles Times just came out with a list of their 101 best restaurants and most of them were the reviewer's trendy favorites. They did mention some more established restaurants like Geuldguetza, Jitlada and Langer's, but to me these seem inclusions to be inclusive as opposed to identifying the best. I wonder whether they even considered Michael's, Spago or Angelini Osteria? (they probably did; this seemed an earnest effort). Angelini was #2 in 2015. The food has not dropped off in quality. Have 101+ restaurants really leapfrogged in front of it as being best? It seems to be a list of restaurants this reviewer sees as relevant as opposed to what is the best experience. That seems remarkably shortsighted as the region's most prominent source of review in that he/they create the relevancy so the inclusions just end up creating a self fulfilling prophesy.
Do you remember the ‘afternoon tea’ that they served? Delicious!