Perino’s Opens Again With New Management

Perino’s, once described as “an oasis of mature elegance amid the boisterousness of a rowdy movietown,” has picked itself up, dusted itself off and started all over again.

Following bankruptcy proceedings last year and a “last supper” by its former owner, Frank Esgro, before being padlocked for safekeeping, the famed world-class restaurant reopened this week under the direction of Carlo Bondanelli on behalf of a consortium of Italian investors headed by Gualtiero Billi.

They are leasing the property from owners Harold E. Frank and David Langman.

The refurbishment of the landmark structure was based on the original 1949 design by architect Paul Williams, carried out by Italian architect Bini Annamaria and interior designers Steve and Sherry Stockwell.

Essentially, Perino’s retains its elegant peach-themed decor, its pink and stained glass door, its oval-shaped dining room with original banquettes, crystal chandeliers and furnishings, its Renaissance Room, its intimate Gold Room.

If Perino’s banquettes could reveal the events they witnessed in the past decade, there would be enough fascinating tales to fill a book.

The actual restaurant structure as it exists today on the northwest corner of Norton Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard resulted from a $200,000 conversion from an earlier structure. It was architect Williams’ and original owner Alexander P. Perino’s intention that the restaurant be patterned after historic New Orleans architecture “with a California flair.” The contractor was C. L. Peck Jr.

For 50 years through two locations, Perino’s was thought of as “the greatest status symbol a stomach ever had.” The restaurant survived two great fires, one grand theft and food rationing, and like other noted restaurant landmarks--Romanoff’s, Ben Blue’s and La Rue’s--went by the wayside.

It was at Perino’s where Richard Nixon dined following his appearance on television in 1971 to announce his pending visit to Red China. It was where practically every celebrity, including Cole Porter, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bugsy Siegel and the socialites of the 1950s listened to soft violins and regaled the chicken quenelles and stuffatino di vitelo .

It was also where Helen Rybus, after winning a $7,500 dinner at a place of her choice, took a flock of residents from a Home for the Aged for an outing they would never forget.