There are a number of L.A. restaurants that have been around a while: Pacific Dining Car, Cole’s, Formosa Cafe, Barney’s Beanery. And some enduring power spots, such as the Grill on the Alley and the Palm; culty little clubhouses, like Chez Jay; and show-business playpens, like Dan Tana’s. But Musso & Frank Grill, which has been a Hollywood Boulevard fixture since 1919, probably outranks them all in terms of full-on, old-school Hollywood fantasia. This cozy, wood-panelled chophouse is pretty much crammed every night with an only-in-L.A. mix of old-timers, newcomers, hipsters, honeymooners, has-beens, and never-will-be’s. The martini is one of the best in the world. It is served in a tastefully small Art Deco martini glass, with a little pitcher for the reserve—you can top it up as you like. The unapologetically archaic menu is one you might imagine providing Philip Marlowe sustenance while working a case: it runs to prime rib, steaks, kidneys, Welsh rarebit, and other things people ate when unfiltered Camels were considered to be great for the digestion. (The food is way better than it needs to be.) And speaking of Philip Marlowe, they say that Raymond Chandler wrote The Big Sleep—the good parts, anyway—in a booth there —Mark Rozzo

Mark Rozzo is an Editor at Large at AIR MAIL and the author of Everybody Thought We Were Crazy: Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward, and 1960s Los Angeles