Late Night at Musso & Frank

When prohibition ended in 1933, the owners of Musso & Frank wasted no time in opening a bar at Musso’s. The stools quickly filled with an exclusive clientele who struck deals while sipping Musso’s famous Martinis.  There was no other restaurant or bar in the city… perhaps no other place in the world, where one could see the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Humphrey Bogart, Greta Garbo or Gary Cooper all in the same room… Mussos was that place.

That same bar that propped up William Faulkner, Janis Joplin, Charles Bukowski and Steve McQueen on a regular basis is still at Mussos, surrounded by the ghosts of American legends still chasing after one more drink.  Now on Friday and Saturday nights, bartending legend Rueben Rueda, who has been tending bar at Mussos for over 40 years, is staying up late and serving up classic cocktails, late night appetizers and a big slice of Hollywood history.  As the dinner hour winds down, the lights dim and the sounds of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong fill the room with the nostalgic sounds of the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s, while around that famous bar the new generation of artists, writers and tastemakers launch their own legends.