People Watching at Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood

by Melissa Cruz on January 1, 2009

Dan Tana's The last restaurant I went to, in 2008 was Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood, California. What better way to end my year with an awesome people watching place. I love to people watch but I was not expecting that Dan Tana’s was going to be this type of environment. First off, Dan Tana’s is one of the hardest places in LA to make reservations. A lot of celebrities or wanna be celebrities seem to get first dibs.

As I walked into the small restaurant, I thought to myself, “this place is cool, a small little homely Italian restaurant.” Well, I think I was too quick to judge. There were only about 12 stools at the bar, so of course we had to stand in the hallway of the bathroom and drink our Vodka. We might have received better treatment if we were part of what I was calling the “E” list actors that were at this joint.

Jasmine Morales

There was a lady sitting at the bar and she made it a point to amplify her voice as she promoted herself and the new soap opera she was in, “Hacienda Heights.” I later looked up the program and discover that she is in the soap and her name is Jasmine Morales. I guess the self-promoting did pay off, because I went home and Googled her. Jasmine does not have her own website (that i could find) and her name does not rank well when doing a search on Google. The show’s website also does not rank in the top results, they should contact Scott Polk, to help them with their SEO. :) Maybe then, they wont have to work so hard to self-promote.

As we left the bar area to advise the maitre d’ that we had reservations, we were then entertained by this character. I know I had two drinks, which by the way, the drinks at Dan Tana’s are pretty strong. But, the maitre d’ started to promote himself, I was like “WTF, am I ever going to get out of this big commercial?” Mr. maitre d’ started saying that he knows all the actors in the room and when their DVDs come out he gets residuals. How the “L” does this guy get residuals for someone else’s DVD? I don’t know if he was trying to be funny, or was just really whack and believed he was famous??? After he promoted himself he gave us the cold shoulder a little, because again, we were not “E” listers or any type of listers for that matter.

We were finally seated about 15 minutes after our scheduled reservation. The food at Dan Tans’s was okay, not worth the $25.00 for the Fettuccine Alfredo a la Mark Singer, but edible. As we finished our dinner, i noticed a guy sitting across the table that looked really familiar. I asked everyone at my table if they knew the guys name and no one seemed to know. The guy looked like he was waiting to be noticed, he might have been a “C” lister. I was going to make his night, and ask him, but decided not to after all.

As we were leaving Dan Tana’s and waiting for our car from valet, we noticed two women

Corey Feldman

getting out of a car, a bit hoochie-fied so of course they caught everyone’s attention. All of the sudden a paparazzi came from no where and started taking pictures of the guy getting out of the car. The guy was…(drum roll please…) Corey Feldman!!!!!!!!! Yes, whom back in the 80s was the king of the teen box office, along with Cory Haim.

Although, the food was average and the customer service for us non-listers was so-so, I will definitely be going back to Dan Tana’s, only because it was one of the BEST places to people watch and reminded me how lucky I am to be normal. Plus, it gave me Twitter material.