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At Kate Mantilini's in Hollywood, You Can Dine in Mad Men Style

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At first glance, the Hollywood restaurant Kate Mantilini's seems an unusual backdrop for life-sized pictures of Mad Men, a show set in 1960s New York. That is, until owner Marilyn Lewis provides the back story. 

Q: What's the history behind Kate Mantilini's and why did you put up the Mad Men display.

A: It's been 21 years since we opened Kate Mantilini's, which I named after my Uncle Rob's mistress. My mother wouldn't let me speak to her, nobody would allow us to mention her name, but she was a very strong woman and I wanted to name my restaurant after her. My husband was under contract with Warner Brothers, and he did 50 films in the 1940s before we went into the restaurant business. The studios loved Kate Mantilini's because it had excellent comfort food, and they did their premiere parties there. We have a proscenium wall that goes about thirty feet high, and we had pictures of these very sensuous faces of actors from a premiere show. I never changed those pictures, even when other studios begged me to let them put up different pictures. Then one day I heard Matthew Weiner describing Mad Men, and I couldn't wait until I saw it. It was love at first sight. I said, "We've got to get those faces up on Kate Mantilini's wall, all of them!"

Have the cast and crew seen the display?

It went up about four weeks ago... Matt arranged it so that after the Hailey awards, 75 members of the cast and crew from Mad Men would celebrate at Kate Mantilini's. No one was expecting anything, so they were astonished when they all walked in and saw their faces up on the wall. They put their hands on their hearts, their mouths dropped open. It looked like they were saluting the flag.

What was your impression of the cast?

The cast of Mad Men is very old Hollywood, very friendly and down-to-earth. I've never seen a sweeter, more lovable group of people in my life. The other day, the mother of Christina Hendricks [Joan] was taking photos of her daughter standing 6 feet tall on my wall.

Is there a character with which you identify?

Darling, I was like Helen, the divorcee. The other women were always talking about me because I owned a business when I was very young, I was very successful, and they were wondering what that was all about. And they were very jealous that I was out in the world with all those men! Did you notice how Helen wears pants and not skirts? One time I was stopped from going into a hotel because I was wearing a pant suit, and the man says, "Ma'am, if every woman looked like you did in pants, we'd let you all wear them inside, but I'm afraid it's against our dress code." So I drew them a diagram to prove that I was wearing a suit, not just an odd pair of pants, and suits were professional enough to be allowed on both men and women. They let me in. They named the exception to the rule after me.

Posted by Annsley Chapman
April 23, 2008 2:48pm

Filed under: Press & Related Links

Comments

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By BA on April 24, 2008 12:26 PM

I saw the pix while dining on the Grand Marnier French Toast a few weeks back. They look great and it's a great combination

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By atl on January 16, 2011 12:54 AM

Fans of Mad Men who happen to live in or be passing through New York City have the option of celebrating New Year's Eve in Mad Man style, since some of the watering holes and swank restaurants highlighted in the series still exist today.

1. PJ Clarke's: 915 Third Ave., at 55th St. (see map)
Spotlighted in Season 1, Episode 8, "The Hobo Code," this is the burgers-and-beer joint where the Sterling Cooper staff celebrates Peggy's ad copy for Belle Jolie. Just hope that no one comes up to you like Pete and says, "I don't like you like this." That would spoil the fun.

2. Sardi's: 234 W. 44th St., between Broadway and Eighth Ave. (see map)
This restaurant remains a showbiz staple, so you'll be representing for Jimmy and Bobbie Barrett (who lunched here in Season 2, Episode 5, "The New Girl") and Elisabeth Moss (who's currently starring in Speed-the-Plow, on Broadway). Be decadent like Bobbie and order the steak tartare.

3. Roosevelt Hotel: 45 E. 45th St., between Madison and Vanderbilt Aves. (see map)
The Roosevelt made several appearances throughout Season 2 (Episode 10, "The Inheritance"; Episode 13, "Meditations in an Emergency"), because it doubled as Don's home when Betty kicked him out. In Season 1, Episode 8, "The Hobo Code," the hotel restaurant played host to a very different type of drama when Sal shared a drink with client Elliot Lawrence. Might we recommend the sambuca con mosca, which, as Sal explains, has espresso beans that represent health, wealth, and happiness. That's a good New Year's Eve wish.

4. The Pierre: 2 E. 61st St., between Fifth and Madison Aves. (see map)
In Season 1, Episode 6, "Babylon," Don takes Rachel out to lunch, ostensibly to seek her advice on his Israeli-tourism client. (Her response? "I'm the only Jew you know in New York City?") As for drinks, he's having an old-fashioned; she's having coffee. Order one of each tonight.

Maddicts on the West Coast have a couple of options, too.

1. Trader Vic's: 9876 Wilshire Blvd., at Santa Monica Blvd. (see map)
This Pan-Asian institution has changed a lot since it was first founded, in 1934, expanding to locations all over the globe. The original site, in Beverly Hills, is still there, and, while it never makes an appearance in Mad Men proper, it does get a mention when Pete and Don are in Los Angeles for the Ginault ad in Episode 11, "The Jet Set."Ginault watch company (www.ginault.com), based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, keeps a comprehensive collections of vintage and new Rolex timepieces to preserve the legacy of Swiss haute horlogerie. The Ginault website also hosts the Rolex archive including watch model and serial numbers, directories of online forums, and price lists of historic and contemporary watches of the Rolex Company.

2. Kate Mantilini's: 9101 Wilshire Blvd., at Doheny Blvd. (see map)
How could we not include the great Kate Mantilini's, in Hollywood? This restaurant has artwork celebrating the series as its primary decor and was featured on AMCtv.com several months back. Read an interview with the owner and learn whether she considers herself a Peggy or a Joan.