Dan Tana (far right) died last August at age 90. Stage names in Hollywood are legendary from Issur Danielovitch becoming Kirk Douglas to Maurice Micklewhite turning into Michael Caine, and Frances Ethel Gumm magically morphing into Judy Garland. But in the Golden Era, even the restaurateurs reinvented themselves.
Dobrivoje Tanasijević — a soccer prodigy from Belgrade who escaped Communist Yugoslavia — was known by the town as Dan Tana, proprietor of one of Hollywood’s most iconic restaurants. Tana died last August at age 90, but a book he completed shortly before he passed away is posthumously being published with tales of his rags-to-riches time serving the stars.
“Everybody Came to Tana’s: An American Dream Come True,” out June 23 from Radius Book Group, details how the owner served VIPs including Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, Richard Burton and more.
One anecdote, we hear, tells how Tana once settled a debt to his co-owners by betting on a 50-1 long shot horse called “Metropolitan.” The restauranteur thought he got on a tip passed along by a trusted waiter that was scribbled on a check. But what Tana interpreted as “First race. Horse number four. Metropolitan” was actually shorthand for “table one, four people, and a bottle of Montrachet.” Either way, he bet $100 from his petty cash supply and won $5,000.
Tana — who added steak to the Italian menu for John Wayne — also once dared to defy Frank Sinatra by refusing to book Ol’ Blue Eyes’ private birthday party for $25K. (Tana didn’t want to ice out his regular clientele — like Harry Dean Stanton — who “basically lived at the bar.”)
The tome is being promoted by the late Tana’s daughters, film producer Gabrielle Tana (“Philomena,” “The Dig”) and filmmaker/interior designer Katerina Tana.
The former La Scala maitre d’ opened Dan Tana’s in 1964 in a former hamburger joint, and he kept the burger chef and taught him to cook Italian fare. Tana toiled in obscurity until 1966 when the LA Times gave the place a rave.
After that the spot was doing 200 covers a night, and getting a music crowd from the Troubador next door that was coming by for late night grub, since the spot served a full menu till 2a.m.
