A Classy Joint Since 1959

Chez Jay has been serving locals and legends since 1959. Part neighborhood steak and seafood joint, part Old Hollywood hideaway, it became a favorite of Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen, Jim Morrison, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton—and many more. Long before celebrity privacy became a luxury, Chez Jay was known as a place where famous faces could slip in, settle in and simply be left alone.

Lee Marvin rode his motorcycle through the Dutch doors and ordered a drink at the bar. Astronaut Alan Shepard took one of Chez Jay’s famous peanuts to the moon and back, naming it the “Astro-Nut.” Opening night featured showgirls and a circus elephant that left a dent in the bar still visible today. Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys once dove over the low wall separating Table 10 and set off a brawl.

Table 10—our hidden, curtained-off private booth and keeper of Chez Jay’s best secrets. Warren Beatty and Henry Kissinger were among its regulars, while Jim Mahoney and the Rat Pack made Table 10 their weekly pre-poker stop. Legend places Marilyn Monroe here with John F. Kennedy, and Daniel Ellsberg reportedly passed the Pentagon Papers to a New York Times reporter at this very table. If Table 10 could talk, it probably wouldn’t. Reserve it and add your own story to the list.

Declared a Santa Monica Historic Landmark in 2012, Chez Jay remains what it has always been: a little rough around the edges, a little glamorous, and a place where everyone gets treated like a regular.