At Time Out L.A.’s Bar Awards 2018, the Musso & Frank Grill was nominated for “Best Legacy Bar.” They didn’t win though – maybe because in 2017, they took home the prize for “Most Iconic L.A. Bar.” Instead, this year Time Out crowned The Spare Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. When The Spare Room co-owner Med Abrous went onstage to accept the award, he dedicated it to the Musso & Frank team, calling them up onstage to pose for photos.

The martini
at Musso’s is a classic, served with gin or vodka, and a carafe chilled
in a sidecar. (photo by Tina Whatcott)

“It was a nice moment, and not just in a ‘respect your elders’ kind of way,” Time Out L.A. editor Michael Juliano said. “You could tell Med had a genuine admiration for Musso & Frank.”

And why shouldn’t he? The bar and restaurant is not only a Hollywood institution, famous for serving everyone from William Faulkner to Leonardo DiCaprio. It’s also known for its incredible adherence to tradition – many of the things that make Musso’s (as it’s colloquially called) special are nearly the same as they were when the restaurant opened almost a century ago. The waitstaff’s uniforms are mostly unchanged; the bar is made of the same wood, reconstructed when it was moved from its original location; the menu is nearly identical to the way it was when the restaurant opened.

What has changed is the culture surrounding Musso’s. Andrea Scuto, the general manager, said he feels like bartending in general is becoming less personal and more focused on craft and ingredients.

“What’s never been lost at this bar is that the bartender is not just the guy that prepares perfectly calibrated martinis,” Scuto said. “He is also your psychologist, or your friend, or the person that listens to you and remembers what you told him the night before and the night before and the night before.”

Some of the bartenders and waiters have been on staff at Musso’s for their entire careers. Waiter Sergio Gonzalez has been there since 1972, when he came to Los Angeles from Mexico to visit his uncle, who worked at the restaurant. His uncle ended up setting him up with a job, and Gonzalez never left. What’s changed about Los Angeles since 1972? Gonzalez said the way people dress, smartphones at dinner and martinis – specifically, that young people are drinking them more often, and now they’re sometimes being made with vodka instead of the traditional gin.

The martini is a Musso & Frank classic. Bartender Graham Miller said the most important element of the Musso martini is that it’s stirred, not shaken. This gives the drink a silkier feel.

He also mentioned the fact that every martini is served with a small carafe of a second pour in a sidecar filled with crushed ice.

“The sidecar is the secret,” Scuto said. “And the other secret is the bartender.”