Preface

Years ago, my husband and I bought two beloved, family-run restaurants in Los Angeles: Nate ‘n Al’s delicatessen in Beverly Hills and The Apple Pan in Westwood. Both were regarded as institutions. They had been around for decades, but, more importantly, they were places where we had eaten while growing up and then shared with our children and grandchildren. The memories were as special as the food. My husband and I feel it is important to maintain the fabric of our childhoods, those special places that helped make us who we are so that we can pass that on to future generations, and so, in that spirit, when these two restaurants fell on hard times and were about to shut their doors, we stepped in and kept them going.