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Classic Dining: Discovering America’s Finest Mid-Century Restaurants

This gallery contains 15 photos.

I am excited to announce that my new book “Classic Dining: Discovering America’s Finest Mid-Century Restaurants” will be available November 1st!   Click on the images for full-size blowups – New photography by Sven A. Kirsten Journey to America’s finest … Continue reading

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Prague’s Metropolitan Building: An Astounding Art Nouveau Palace

During a recent visit to Prague I visited perhaps the most extraordinary example of high art nouveau architecture in Central Europe, the city’s Municipal Building.  Although neither Modern nor in America, this building demanded a thorough exploration and this resulting … Continue reading

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Home of Original Caesar Salad Reopens in Tijuana

This gallery contains 10 photos.

In June of last year I posted about The Magic of Tableside Caesar Salad at the Dal Rae.  In it I waxed poetic about my love of a great Caesar and how the Dal Rae in Pico Rivera was my favorite haunt … Continue reading

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Family Feud: Havana vs. Las Vegas in the 1950s. Part 2

This gallery contains 19 photos.

The great Havana building boom of 1956-1958 saw the completion of the biggest, most extravagant hotel-casinos outside of Las Vegas.  First to be erected was the glittering Hotel Capri, a modern 19-story edifice with the novelty of a rooftop swimming … Continue reading

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Family Feud: Havana vs. Las Vegas in the 1950s. Part 1

This gallery contains 11 photos.

Before Castro’s revolution, Havana and Las Vegas were rivals for the title of “Monte Carlo of the Americas.” Cuba was exotic, tropical, wild, and close by.  Las Vegas was dry, dusty and remote.  In Cuba, the mob invested heavily in … Continue reading

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Back Room Gambling in the Good Ol’ Days

This gallery contains 7 photos.

In America for most of the 20th century, laying a bet was strictly illegal except at regulated horse and dog tracks and a few isolated outposts in the far West.  Just as with the banning of alcohol in the 1920s, … Continue reading

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Super Scopitone Swings at ’60s Nightclub

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My friend DeSoto Brown in Honolulu found an amazing Scopitone and wrote, “This video appears to encompass many of the nightlife themes you espouse in your blog, in one appealing package.” Ethel Ennis sings “I’ve Got That Feeling”  Enjoy!

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The Magic of Tableside Caesar Salad at the Dal Rae

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The beauty of witnessing the preparation of a Caesar Salad tableside by a master with all of the ingredients presented on a specially designed cart is without equal.  Lorin Smith, co-owner of the fabulous Dal Rae restaurant in Pico Rivera, California … Continue reading

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Recreating the 1938 Oysters Rockefeller Postcard from Antoine’s

This gallery contains 1 photo.

On June 4, 2011 photographer Sven Kirsten, videographer Nathan Marsak and I spent the day at the famous Antoine’s Restaurant in New Orleans doing a photo shoot for “America After Dark.”  During the shoot we were inspired to recreate the … Continue reading

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Nucky and Skinny’s Atlantic City

This gallery contains 11 photos.

Atlantic City was America’s first mega-resort.  As early as the 1870s, Atlantic City attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, most of who hailed from nearby Philadelphia where inexpensive train travel made a weekend holiday or day trip possible.  By … Continue reading

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