Chasen’s May Reopen at New Site

Chasen’s, once the beloved haunt of movie stars, presidents, tycoons and famous writers, could soon make a comeback. The West Hollywood restaurant, which closed in April 1995 after 58 years, may reopen within three months at a new location in Beverly Hills.

Grady Sanders, a Texas-born entrepreneur and property developer, said he and his partners plan to open the new Chasen’s on the site of the now-defunct Bistro restaurant (not to be confused with the nearby defunct Bistro Gardens restaurant, where Spago’s Wolfgang Puck intends to soon open a new restaurant).

Details of the agreement with the Chasen family, including licensing of the Chasen’s name and leasing of art, photos and memorabilia from the old Chasen’s, are being worked out, said Sanders and Scott McKay, a Chasen’s family member and spokesman. Sanders says he hopes to rehire Pepe, one of Chasen’s venerable bartenders.

Chasen’s began as Southern Pit Barbecue at Beverly Boulevard and Doheny Drive, the dream of Dave Chasen, a vaudeville actor-comedian, who opened the place with a $3,500 loan from a friend.

Chasen’s menu, solid and unchanging, featured spareribs, stiff drinks, the hefty “hobo steak” and the famous chili that was never listed on the menu. Generations of stars and celebrities, from W.C. Fields, Greta Garbo and Bing Crosby to Dorothy Parker, Grantland Rice and Robert Benchley, called Chasen’s their home away from home. President Ronald Reagan, while in office, was a frequent guest (he used the restaurant’s private back entrance), and producer Richard Zanuck ate there weekly as a child.

As the years rolled by, however, a younger Hollywood bypassed the waning landmark for newer, trendier spots. Even so, when the Chasen family announced that the restaurant would close, business rallied and the place was mobbed for months.