Hollywood SHOCKWAVE: Legendary Restaurateur Dan Tana, Who Escaped Communist Yugoslavia, Gambled His Way to America, Rubbed Shoulders with Clooney and Sinatra, and Turned a Tiny Red-Sauce Joint Into the World’s Most Star-Studded Clubhouse, Dies at 90…

In Hollywood, where stars rise and fall overnight, true legends are not just made on the silver screen.

Some are born in unexpected places — at dimly lit tables, under red Christmas lights, with bowls of spaghetti marinara, steaks served with pasta, and glasses of Chianti flowing late into the night.

One such legend was Dan Tana, a larger-than-life figure who fled Communist Yugoslavia as a teenager, bounced through European soccer clubs, won a fateful poker game in 1956, and used the winnings to chase the American dream.

What he built was more than a restaurant.

It was a Hollywood clubhouse, a sanctuary for the biggest names in film, music, and sports — from George Clooney and Cameron Diaz to Frank Sinatra, Elton John, and John Wayne.

For more than four decades, his iconic West Hollywood restaurant, Dan Tana’s, defined the glamour, grit, and unpredictability of Hollywood life.

This past Saturday, August 16, Dan Tana died in Belgrade, Serbia, at the age of 90, following a battle with cancer.

His death, confirmed by his daughter Gabrielle, has sent ripples through Hollywood, where generations of actors, executives, and ordinary patrons all considered Tana’s not just a place to eat, but a place to belong.

From Yugoslavia to Hollywood: The Incredible Journey

Born Dobrivoje Tanasijević in a small Serbian town outside Belgrade on May 26, 1935, Tana grew up in a world scarred by World War II.

His father, once a successful restaurateur, was arrested when Communists seized power, forcing the family into survival mode.

Young Dan channeled his energy into soccer, joining Red Star Belgrade’s farm team as a teenager.

But fate intervened when he got into a fight with a team chaperone during a trip to Belgium.

Tana, along with two friends, promptly defected from Communist Yugoslavia, never to return as a citizen of the regime.

His soccer career took him through Germany and eventually to Canada, but it was in 1956 that everything changed.

In Montreal, he won big at a poker game — big enough to buy a ticket to Hollywood.

Armed with little more than charm, a rugged athletic build, and an appetite for reinvention, he arrived in Los Angeles ready to gamble on himself.

A Waiter, an Actor, and the Birth of a Restaurateur

In Hollywood, Tana initially pursued acting, adopting the stage name Dan Tana.

His thick accent and rugged appearance landed him roles as Russians, Germans, gangsters, and fascists.

By his own account, he was typecast in roles that ended with him getting killed on screen — and “never kissing the girl.”

To survive, he worked in restaurants, starting as a dishwasher and later becoming a waiter and maître d’.

He studied not only the business of serving food but also the art of creating an experience.

Unlike most Hollywood waiters who doubled as aspiring actors, Tana took the job seriously, developing an almost old-world sense of professionalism and charisma.

He worked at La Scala, the iconic Beverly Hills institution, where he learned the intricacies of fine dining.

Then came an opportunity: some friends were struggling to keep a small pub, Domenico’s Lunch Spot, afloat.

Tana offered to take over the lease with a down payment of just one dollar, followed by $30,000 spread across years.

In 1964, he opened the doors to what would become Dan Tana’s.

A Little Yellow House That Became a Legend

The location was modest: a 1929 bungalow with only a dozen tables.

At first, it was just another restaurant in a city already overflowing with dining options.

But everything changed one winter evening in 1966 when a columnist for The Los Angeles Times dined there.

His glowing review, praising the food and describing it as “new and charming,” launched Dan Tana’s into the Hollywood stratosphere.

From that moment on, the restaurant never had an empty night.

“From then on, we never had a night when we served less than 220 dinners,” Tana proudly recalled in a 2014 Variety interview.

The Scene, Not Just the Sauce

What made Dan Tana’s different wasn’t the food — though the dishes became beloved classics — but the scene.

The décor was famously described as “bordello red”: dark lighting, red Naugahyde booths, red-and-white checkered tablecloths, and Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling year-round.

Waiters, many of them immigrants from the Balkans, wore bow ties and treated patrons with dignity and professionalism, in stark contrast to the often-clumsy aspiring actors serving at other LA restaurants.

The menu itself rarely changed: steaks, veal cutlets, calamari, spaghetti marinara.

Even the New York strip steak came with pasta.

But the names on the menu told a bigger story.

Patrons were immortalized in dishes like “Veal Jerry Weintraub,” “Steak Dabney Coleman,” “Braciola Vlade Divac,” and the now-iconic “Veal Cutlet, Milanese, alla George Clooney.”

As one reviewer quipped: “The cuisine had two varieties: red and white.”

But nobody came to Dan Tana’s just for the food.

They came for the people-watching, which the Los Angeles Times once rated a perfect “10 out of 10.”

Celebrities, Chaos, and the Trading Table

Dan Tana’s became the ultimate equalizer.

On any given night, Brad Grey, chairman of Paramount Pictures, might sit at one table, while Viacom titan Sumner Redstone sat at another.

Across the room, Cameron Diaz laughed with friends while Johnny Carson quietly dined before handing the torch to Jay Leno.

Drew Barrymore was said to have had her diapers changed on the bar as a baby.

The place was chaotic, glamorous, and at times scandalous.

In the 1970s, patrons recalled the musician Nils Lofgren playing an accordion while high on acid.

Another night, an agent and producer got into a brawl over a third man’s wife, leaving blood stains on the carpet.

The restaurant even developed a superstition around one particular booth, dubbed the “trading table.” Wayne Gretzky and Vlade Divac both sat there shortly before being traded.

To avoid bad luck, maitre d’ Craig Susser refused to seat Shaquille O’Neal there.

George Clooney, Studio Chiefs, and Ordinary Regulars

While George Clooney famously picked up tabs for strangers and hosted his 2006 Oscars party at the restaurant, not everyone was an A-lister.

Alongside the biggest stars were waiters, lawyers with ponytails, safari company owners, and 911 operators.

That was part of Tana’s genius: he made everyone feel like they belonged.

“Even a studio chief might not get a booth at the last minute if they haven’t been in for a while,” Susser told The New York Times in 2005.

The Man Behind the Myth

Tana himself was just as fascinating as the restaurant he built.

Standing six feet tall with an athlete’s build, he was fluent in six languages — Russian, German, French, Italian, English, and Serbo-Croatian.

He was known for his impeccable manners, once described by Los Angeles Magazine as “one of the few men who can carry off kissing a woman’s hand swiftly, smoothly, and without hesitation, the same way he lights your cigarette.”

Even when he was traveling to London or Belgrade for his international soccer interests, he remained the soul of his restaurant, personally greeting guests and overseeing the atmosphere.

Passing the Torch and Protecting the Legacy

In 2009, Tana sold the restaurant to his friend Sonja Perencevic, a fellow Balkan expatriate.

She promised not to change a thing — and she didn’t.

“Dan Tana’s is as much a part of the Hollywood landscape as fan palms, Botox, and tanning salons,” Air Mail wrote in 2021.

Tana himself proudly noted: “She didn’t change anything.”

Meanwhile, former maitre d’ Craig Susser struck out on his own, opening Craig’s just blocks away, drawing some of the old regulars.

But Dan brushed off the competition, remarking, “Craig was my eighth manager in almost 60 years.

With each one, I lost some new customers and regained some old ones.”

Beyond the Restaurant: The Legend of Dan Tana

His name even achieved pop culture immortality when it was borrowed for the lead character in the TV series Vega$, which ran on ABC from 1978 to 1981.

Though Tana himself laughed about the association, it only cemented his place in Hollywood lore.

Unlike other celebrity hotspots, the walls of Dan Tana’s weren’t covered with autographed headshots.

Instead, they featured soccer memorabilia, a nod to his true first love.

As one bartender told The Observer: “All these stars come to Dan Tana’s because of Dan Tana.

Sure, he’s one of them; but he’s different: He’s lived a very different life.”

Final Curtain

Dan Tana’s life was nothing short of cinematic — an immigrant’s journey from war-torn Yugoslavia to the glittering heart of Hollywood, a man who combined grit, charm, and relentless perseverance to build a place where legends felt at home.

His daughter Gabrielle put it simply: he was more than a restaurateur.

He was a storyteller, a connector, and a man who made magic happen over a plate of pasta.

As tributes pour in, one thing is certain: while Dan Tana has passed, his legend will live on in every glass of Chianti raised under the red lights of his iconic little yellow house.