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  • Mikala Jones-Fielder: This is the oldest family-owned

  • restaurant in Los Angeles.

  • The restaurant is most famous for two things:

  • its massive slabs of juicy prime rib

  • and its connection to old and new Hollywood.

  • As you can imagine, it's packed with history, charm,

  • and a couple of secrets.

  • This is the legendary Tam O'Shanter.

  • Customer: My favorite dish,

  • and, of course, being part of Lowry's,

  • I would say is the prime rib.

  • It's delicious.

  • John Lindquist: The feel that you get when you walk into

  • this restaurant is you're walking back, not only in time,

  • but you're walking into a fantasy land.

  • It looks like Snow White's house from outside,

  • and inside it's fully decorated

  • with knickknacks on the walls,

  • you know, from, literally from 1922 on to now.

  • There's always new stuff popping up on the wall,

  • something interesting.

  • One of the things we're most famous for is our prime rib.

  • So, here's this great piece of prime rib.

  • It weighs almost 20 pounds.

  • It has eight full bones on it.

  • And we're gonna take this, and we're gonna slice it,

  • and we might get eight portions out of this thing.

  • So, it's tried and true.

  • And what we do is we take this meat,

  • and we season it with our Lawry's seasoning salt,

  • and we spread it all over the meat.

  • And once it's completely seasoned

  • all the way around, it rests.

  • And then 24 hours later,

  • we pull out the seasoned piece of beef,

  • and it goes in the oven.

  • It goes in at 225 degrees for three hours,

  • and when that piece of meat is rested,

  • about 30 to 45 minutes later,

  • it's ready for service.

  • Mikala: Wow.

  • It's so savory.

  • It's so tender.

  • I love a good medium-rare steak,

  • and I see a lot of blood,

  • and it's making me really happy.

  • It's so good.

  • It melts in your mouth.

  • You can taste the gravy,

  • and the fat and the meat all together

  • is just absolutely incredible.

  • I don't think I can finish this

  • all by myself. Absolutely not.

  • So let's move on to the next dish.

  • John: So, not only do we serve full cuts of prime rib,

  • but also, during lunchtime,

  • one of my favorite things is to walk into the bar

  • and have a prime-rib sandwich,

  • where we take the prime rib and we slice it thin

  • and put it on a beautiful piece of brioche

  • to serve to our guests. A little au jus on the side

  • and some horseradish. It's amazing.

  • And that kind of came out of the necessity

  • that people wanted a quick lunch.

  • They didn't want to sit down to that full

  • kind of Sunday supper meal, especially at noon.

  • And it's quick, and that prime-rib sandwich

  • really fits the bill.

  • Mikala: I love that.

  • The bread, with the meat and the au jus,

  • it's, like, coming off my fingers.

  • Very messy but very good. [laughs]

  • Customer: I've been coming to the Tam for about

  • 12 years now.

  • And the meat, the potatoes,

  • and the corn are the classic, right.

  • It's the classic Tam and Lowry's experience.

  • You can't go wrong with the corn

  • or the mashed potatoes or the prime rib.

  • John: The Tam O'Shanter grew up with Hollywood.

  • Hollywood grew up around us here,

  • so we had the silent-movie actors and actresses.

  • We had Fatty Arbuckle here in the bar.

  • We also had Mary Pickford.

  • Up to even present day, where Tom Hanks,

  • he shot "Larry Crowne" here,

  • so he spent a couple of weeks actually

  • writing parts of the script here in our restaurant.

  • We've done a whole host of other TV shows.

  • "The Office" was actually shot here.

  • All: Whoa!

  • Clark: Here we go!

  • Dwight: Oh, thank God. We are famished.

  • John: We've had "Mad Men" shoot right here at our bar.

  • We had "Glee" film at our bar as well.

  • Then, throughout the ages, we had Walt Disney,

  • who had a great association with the restaurant

  • 'cause his studio was right down the road.

  • You know, unfortunately, he didn't have a commissary

  • built into his studio, so there was only

  • one restaurant in the area, and that was this.

  • And that tradition sort of stuck throughout the years.

  • So we're coming up on our 100th-year

  • anniversary in two years,

  • and we've been family-owned and family-run

  • by the same families for those almost 100 years now.

  • That's something incredible in Los Angeles,

  • especially because in Los Angeles

  • we tend to knock things down and change them.

  • But the Tam remains the same.

  • Customer: We've been coming here to this wonderful

  • Tam O'Shanter restaurant for many years.

  • When I was working and gainfully employed,

  • now I'm gainfully retired,

  • and we still come here.

  • The food is superb.

  • The service is great today, and what can I say?

  • It's great to be here with our friends of 90 years.

  • Brother in law, my sister, my wife, and what can I say?

  • It's just a beautiful place to be here,

  • and thanks for allowing me to be on camera.

Mikala Jones-Fielder: This is the oldest family-owned

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