Rumor has it that at the 1982 grand opening of Wolfgang Puck’s Spago, 21 Rolls-Royces competed for the restaurant’s few parking spots. The first iteration, located in a 1920s home on Sunset Boulevard, is credited with kickstarting “California cuisine,” which Puck has described as “local products, freshness, simplicity, lower prices, less solemnity and no truffles.” Regulars, from Sue Mengers to Sidney Poitier to Michael Caine, went for Puck’s “Jewish Pizza”—thin crust topped with crème fraîche, smoked salmon, and caviar. In 2001, the restaurant relocated to the bleeding heart of Beverly Hills, Canon Drive, and the clientele followed. Now, diners eat surrounded by olive trees. —Jensen Davis

Jensen Davis is the Junior Editor at AIR MAIL