The Smoke House opened in 1946, and this year it marks its 80th anniversary, one of the last old-Hollywood restaurants in Los Angeles still running. Tucked in Burbank steps from the Warner Bros. lot, it has outlasted nearly every establishment from its era.
It was founded by two Lockheed aircraft workers, Jack Monroe and Jim Stockton, who opened a 46-seat spot at the end of World War II. By 1948 they had moved into a Tudor-style building, the former Red Coach Inn, where the restaurant still sits today.
Its proximity to Warner Bros. and Disney drew Hollywood from the start. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby were regulars, and the tradition carries on with names like George Clooney, who named his production company Smokehouse Pictures after the place. The dining room, wood paneling, red leather booths, walls of framed photos of famous patrons, even stood in for Jim and Pam's rehearsal dinner on The Office.
The signature is the garlic cheese bread, still made from a 1946 recipe of sourdough, garlic, Parmesan and two house cheeses (no, the staff insists, there's no boxed mac-and-cheese powder involved). Prime rib remains the main event, done the traditional way.
Eighty years in, the Smoke House's staying power comes down to one thing: doing the same thing well, decade after decade, instead of chasing trends.
