Gardenia Restaurant & Lounge

Established in Hollywood in 1981 by Tom Rolla, erstwhile Broadway “gypsy,” dance coach, and chef, The Gardenia (named to honor his beloved Italian grandmother and the signature flowers she wore when he accompanied her to the opera as a youth,) has since become the “granddaddy” of supper clubs, now the oldest continuously-running such venue in the United States. Living-room-like, with table-service-seating for only a little over 60 patrons, the space is purposefully intimate, and the staff is studiously respectful to performers, who have come to appreciate the space as the quintessential “listening room,” where patrons pay rapt attention to each performance, and extraneous distractions are conscientiously minimized.