DAN TANA, R.I.P.

Although I never met Dan Tana, who passed away three weeks ago at ninety years of age, his eponymous West Hollywood restaurant is one of my two favorites in the world! So I feel the need to pay tribute to the man for starting that eatery, which gave me so many good memories over the years. Actually, over the decades!

The exterior of Dan Tana’s.

For those who don’t know, Dan Tana’s is the best Italian restaurant in Los Angeles. I’ve been dining there since my early twenties. The first one to take me there was a gal pal who’s an LA native, and who loves restaurants as much as I do, so she knew the good ones. And then one of my suitors began doing the same shortly afterwards. I’m not the only one who loves that place!

But it was not until I got together with Mr. X that we became regulars. The maître d’ back then was a wonderful guy named Jimmy. Everyone in this town loved him. I’m sure he was good to all their patrons, but he was especially wonderful to Mr. X and me. At first, Mr. X was the famous one of our duo, so whenever we stopped by for dinner, we appeared in the gossip columns of the day, (such as those in The Hollywood Reporter and Variety,) stating that we were “spied” or “sighted” there the night before. But it was always Mr. X’s name first, “with girlfriend, actress Karen Salkin.”

The late Jimmy Cano hosting at Dan Tana’s.

And then, as soon as I started doing my own local TV show, Karen’s Restaurant Revue, we were treated like extra royalty. We could pull up at 8 o’clock on a Saturday night, I’d run in and tell Jimmy, “I’m hungry,” he’d say, “Give me one minute,” I’d go back to the car and get Mr. X, and when we got back in, Jimmy would already have one of the best tables in the place ready for us! I still have no idea how he always got that done for us!

Actually, most of the tables at Dan Tana’s are pretty good, but there are a few that are not in the main room that are kind of out of the way. I sat in that room twice with friends, and it was definitely good enough, (especially the night that I was right next to Nick Lachey, whom I loved at the time.) But Mr. X and I were always seated right where we could see, and be seen by, everyone, (including Magic Johnson, Dave Mason, and a few Yankees!) It was wonderful to be treated that way.

The main room of Dan Tana’s.

And we usually had the most adorable little real Italian waiter, Tony, and at the end of every meal, he came over and offered us drinks on the house. He’d say something like, “We would love for you to have after-dinner drinks on us,” which was so lovely of them. But we’d gratefully decline because I don’t drink at all, and Mr. X drinks very rarely, and definitely not when he’s about to get back behind the wheel of a car. But we still loved hearing it all the time. As a matter of fact, we always ordered their amazing ice cream sundaes for dessert, which did have a tiny bit of alcohol in them. So one time, when Tony left the table after his kind offer, I whispered to Mr. X, “Since our dessert has pear liqueur in it, do you think they can count that as a drink?” I said it is a joke, of course, and after that, we’d always say it to each other after Tony’s perennial offer, and giggle like idiots.

Karen Salkin, (on the far right,) celebrating her birthday at Dan Tana’s with a few gal pals.

I, regretfully, haven’t dined at Dan Tana’s since before the pandemic, when a group of my female friends took me there for my birthday. (I’ve actually celebrated several b-days there over the years, even one where I had to leave the table and do a radio interview on the phone out in the back in the middle of the dinner!) But you can bet that now that I’ve been reminded of the place, I’ll be going back there very soon. And I’ll be raising my alcohol-laden sundae to Dan Tana himself.

R.I.P., Dan Tana. Thanks for giving me so many good times!