Afterthoughts: One Cover Story Leads to Another

The cover story on Stuart Levin, mentioned in this essay, was published January 1980. Within days of getting his copy, Stuart called me to tell me he liked it. He said he “liked it a lot.” Not long after that, a letter from Stuart, dated January 17, 1980, crossed my desk. “I have been written about in every sort of media that one can imagine, both negatively and complimentary,” wrote Stuart. “Never before has anyone ever captured the Stuart Levin that you did in the article. I really do not know the words that can truly express my deep appreciation for the manner in which you wrote the story.”

The same time the story on Stuart ran, Patrick Terrail called me. He was the owner of Ma Maison. Among Hollywood’s elite, it was considered the most popular and, according to critics, the best restaurant in all of Los Angeles (you could get an argument from gourmands who thought Chasen’s better). Wolfgang Puck was Ma Maison’s chef (see May 1996 Wolfgang Puck. Brand Names: Accept no Substitutes). Patrick called me because he had read the story on Stuart, liked it, and wanted, of all things, equal time. He and Stuart had worked side by side with other soon-to-be foodservice greats at Restaurant Associates, creators of some of the finest restaurants ever to grace the boroughs of New York (see September 1984 Margittai and Kovi: The Four Seasons Restaurant). They were good friends.

“What does it take to get a story about Ma Maison in Restaurant Hospitality?” Patrick asked. I was flabbergasted. I thought he was kidding. You see, Ma Maison was such a popular hangout, such a draw for upper-crusted big shots, hotshots, movie stars and moguls and the rest of L.A.’s dining-out cognoscenti, it needed neither publicity, p.r., advertising, the media fawning over it, nor a phone number. Well, it had one: unlisted. Ma Maison was where everyone who copped an Oscar, gold statue in fist, would descend following the awards.

For years, I had wanted to do a story about Ma Maison, to interview Puck and L.A.’s l’enfant terrible, Patrick Terrail, but knowing of Terrail’s “gag” order (i.e., the unlisted phone number), had no idea how to go about it: go through channels (which ones?); call the restaurant (hello, operator: I’d like the number for Ma Maison on Melrose Blvd.); call Terrail or Puck (“I’m sorry, who did you say you were?”); jump through hoops (whose and where?); know someone (who, where, and when)? Frustrated, my only option was to forget about it. Not this time.
 
The cover story on Ma Maison ran January 1981, one year after the one on Stuart. Lois Dwan, restaurant critic of the L.A. Times, who was to become one of Terrail’s best friends (she told him what to do to improve Ma Maison soon after it opened), told Patrick my cover story was one of the best ever written about him and his restaurant.