Word: romanoff
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...months after opening, Romanoff's was showing a profit, and by the end of 1941, it was an established success. Several explanations have been advanced for this. One is that, in the land of Hollywood make-believe, where every honest actor is an impostor at heart, the local royalty welcomed this suave masquerader from the East who could play his part better than they could play theirs. A second explanation is that Mike has always had an illustrious following of loyal and genuinely affectionate friends. The third is that he runs a damn good restaurant. In this...
EARLY last year Michael Romanoff, who was building a new restaurant in Beverly Hills, Calif., found himself in need of more funds to finish the job. With his usual aplomb, Mr. Romanoff cabled his old friend Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, then vacationing in Honolulu, and asked if he might borrow $25,000. The money arrived the next morning, accompanied by a note which read: "I'm always pleased to serve my King...
...tribute to Mike Romanoff that some of his friends have now elevated him to the rank of king, and that anyone is willing to lend him anything like $25,000. Twenty years ago, the New Yorker published a five-part Profile on him because he then had the dubious honor of being the most fabulous and incredible impostor alive, with the added distinction of having just been deported to France for allegedly defrauding some tourists. But even as far back as 1932, the facts of his life had been so liberally larded with fiction, frequently with his aid and consent...
...time ago. Many people have forgotten, if they ever knew, what Mike's earlier career was like. And his friends no longer care. He is now the successful proprietor and chief stockholder in one of the most famous restaurants in the U.S. It is called, with aristocratic simplicity, Romanoff's, and for any person of consequence in Hollywood not to eat there regularly would be as unthinkable as it would be for Mike, now one of the town's first citizens, to be seen having lunch at a Beverly Hills drive...
...Romanoff's early menu was a choice of two main dishes. During the first three months the restaurant consistently lost money. "There was," Mike has since admitted, "the question of credit. Considering my reputation in those days I could do little about it." But when some credit was eventually extended, "We were meticulous about our obligations...