Continental Style from Caesar to Thermidor: Classic Dining in America

Nightlife historian (and CHSC member) Peter Moruzzi takes you to America’s finest mid-century restaurants – continental style fine dining establishments, historic steakhouses, lounge restaurants and Polynesian palaces – that persevere in U.S. cities large and small. Through exclusive new and vintage photographs, Moruzzi celebrates culinary pioneers and multi-generation restaurateurs, uncovers authentic gems, and debunks the predicted demise of the white tablecloth restaurant. A rollicking journey from past to present.

Historian and preservationist Peter Moruzzi is passionate about the mid-20th century: its nightlife, classic dining, and architecture. He chaired the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Modern Committee from 1992 to 1997, then founded the Palm Springs Modern Committee (PS ModCom), a historic preservation organization, in 1999. He is the author of the illustrated histories “Havana Before Castro: When Cuba Was a Tropical Playground” and “Palm Springs Holiday: A Vintage Tour From Palm Springs to the Salton Sea,” both published by Gibbs Smith. Moruzzi resides in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles and in Palm Springs.

Pacific Palisades Library
861 Alma Real Drive, Pacific Palisades

Free and open to the public.