The Dream of l'Orangerie.

L'Orangerie incarnates the myth of Hollywood as I imagined it at the age of 12.

The background of this story takes place in the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. The year is 1987 and even though the A-Team is at its paramount and Sylvester Stallone is over the top, America is slowly beginning to decline with the dollar losing its potency in the world's currency market. 1987 is also the year of Wall Street and the discovery of one of my favorite films of all time, of which I know the French dialogues almost by heart: The Vikings, starring Kirk Douglas.

At the time French were not used to travel so far. The price of plane tickets was ten times what it is now in comparison, and vacations in LA and actually the Americas were a luxury for most French and Europeans.

We were over excited my brother and I, thinking we would meet tons of stars at every corner of every LA street. After 2 weeks, we eventually met with Mickey Mouse (in Disneyland), lots of Ferraris, the robot of the Nintendo Entertainement System, but definitely no living star at all.
We were actually pretty much disappointed and very stressed about this trip, my father having divorced from my mother recently and having lost his Texas operations in Dallas (I guess he dreamt he would become a sort of JR down there).
We also had a couple of problems with the management of the Beverly Hills Hotel which refused us having dinner at their restaurant or having a bath in their famous swimming pool "because they were not admitting children". The first night we were actually forced to buy country club suits at BHH's shops for my brother and I, and even then, we were just allowed to eat at the bar a vulgar club sandwich.
My father got extremely upset of course and many things changed the following day. We were eventually given suites facing the swimming pool, but even then my father decided we were not going to waste our time in the hotel's restaurant.
Instead my father, with the "generous assistance" of the concierge (who also tried to have him date a gorgeous Madame of his staff), took us to the most famous restaurant addresses in LA of which I only remember a couple: Spago and L'Orangerie.

On the second day of the first week we went to L'Orangerie. We went using the Mercedes convertible my father actually rented for the whole 2 weeks of the trip (after he exchanged it against the Lincoln he thought was classy on the first day).
We were welcomed by 2 gay guys, who seemed weird at the time, not because they were gay (I didn't even knew what the word meant) but because they were sticked together all the time either welcoming guests at the reception, or giving instructions to waiters all over the place. It contrasted so much with the cold welcome and tense atmosphere at the BHH.
I can't remember what we ate then, but I remember the experience so well because our 2 hosts took care of my brother and I for like 2 hours, always telling us nice things in a pseudo-LA French language. Still, we enjoyed the place. We were a bit disappointed though as we left and were told that Mel Brooks had dinner there 2 nights before, and Rambo himself the night before.

The rest of the trip was not so glorious, and eventually when my father asked us what we would like to do on the last night, we chanted in choir "L'Orangerie! please papa!". Strangely enough my father agreed and we took one of the hotel's limo. When we arrived we realised we were not the only one that had something to celebrate as a couple of Rolls Royce were parked against the restaurant main entrance.
At the entrance the 2 gay guys reappeared, this time with less enthusiasm and a bit of anxiety in their manners to welcome us. Issur Danielovitch Demsky was celebrating with the wife he met in Paris and a few friends. Kirk Douglas was there, at the table near the reception (centre right on the photo above), the same "son of bitch" I dreamt I wanted to be in The Vikings.
There was actually another star that very same night, sitting with another three friends at the round table just closed to Kirk Douglas' assembly. Elton John was sitting there, wearing his usual hat and poncho style of garments of the time.
We were actually sitted to the round table on the left of the picture, behind the tree (I can't remember if it is a fountain).
There also was a young TV female star there, talking apparently to a big TV honcho guy. Well, I can't remember her name, but I was told she was very famous by the 2 gay guys (sorry I continue to call them this way), so I believed them.
Amazingly enough, my brother was proposed to do a commercial by a producer that was at a table behind us. My father refused as we had to fly the following day to Houston.
Towards the end of the dinner, our 2 friends came to ask my brother if he wanted to be introduced to the Officer of the Legion d'Honneur Kirk D himself (I wasn't proposed the privilege as I looked pretty upset that night because of my father).
On that memorable occasion Kirk Douglas told a few sentences in French to my 9 years old brother. He told him something I'll remember all my life: "you look already a strong muscular man for your young age!" while he touched the shoulder straps of my brother's suit.
We spent the rest of the night in a total exhilaration.
I think Sir Elton must have been jealous somehow because he wasn't introduced to us. He eventually stood up and went to shake a good hand to Kirk to salute him and left jumping around. The fact he didn't come to salute us as well remains a mystery to this day.

tags: US+Food, Food, Los Angeles, Cinema+Cuisine