Los Angeles has never been short on restaurants that celebrities gravitate towards. From Romanoff’s, where Humphrey Bogart enjoyed eating brunch, to Old Hollywood haunt La Scala and Wolfgang Puck’s Spago, there have always been eateries to see and be seen in La La Land. While Elvis Presley is heavily associated with places like Las Vegas, Palm Springs, and Graceland, the legendary performer loved restaurants all across the United States. When he spent time in LA and craved Chinese food, The King would head to the Formosa Cafe, a West Hollywood favorite that has been open since 1939.
Presley was such an honored guest at the Formosa that today, there is a display of Elvis porcelain figurines in the dining room, and his favorite booth bears his name and photographs. Supposedly, on one of Presley’s visits, he forgot to tip a waitress, so he returned the next day to gift her a pink Cadillac. Over the years, the likes of Ava Gardner, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, Clark Gable, and the cast of Beverly Hills 90210 were frequent guests at the restaurant, as were some of history’s most unsavory characters. Infamous mafioso Mickey Cohen ran bookkeeping operations from the backroom in the 1930s and ’40s. Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel did the same, and he left a time capsule of sorts. During renovations, a hidden safe that the gangster used to exchange cash was discovered under the Formosa’s floor. It had been tucked away unnoticed for 54 years before it was found.
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The Formosa Cafe’s location made it a celebrity magnet
The red exterior of The Formosa Cafe – Walter Cicchetti/Shutterstock
One element that has helped bring countless famous faces into the Formosa Cafe over the decades is the location. The Lot at Formosa, a film production studio across the street, previously operated under several other well-known names, including Pickford-Fairbanks, United Artists, Samuel Goldwyn, and Warner Hollywood Studios. It was easy for industry bigwigs to walk to the Formosa for drinks or meals. A bonus was that photographers weren’t allowed inside, allowing celebrities a bit of peace while they ate and socialized.
Although Elvis Presley died in 1977, his legacy was celebrated at the Formosa by his daughter, Lisa Marie, in 2023, right before her own death. The King’s only child visited the restaurant on what would have been her father’s 88th birthday, during an event that also honored Baz Luhrmann’s biopic, “Elvis.” Her daughter, Riley Keough, and Austin Butler, who portrayed Presley in the film, were also present, and naturally, they sat at Elvis’ booth. On Formosa’s drink menu, alongside a cocktail called John Wayne’s Hat and a Mae West martini, is the Pink Cadillac, likely a nod to Presley’s eye-catching car — the same color and model that he allegedly left as a tip for a server at the restaurant.
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Read the original article on Mashed.