Hollywood's 25 Top Power Lunch Restaurants
Housed in the former Morton’s, Cecconi’s continues the industry association with a clientele heavy on CAA agents from Century City, salted with celebrities and West Hollywood townies. “Our clientele is really mixed,” says GM Marino Monferrato.
The restaurant traces its lineage to London’s storied Cecconi’s and is owned by Soho House, which shares chef Andrea Cavaliere; insiders say a lunch of Cavaliere’s comfort Ital-Californian at Cecconi’s is the next best thing to joining the private club.
Suits in a hurry order the off-the-menu daily piato unico, a single course of protein, carb and salad -- say, herb-crusted chicken, cannelloni and baby greens. Aside from grilled octopus and halfportions of pastas like farro orecchiette, the big hit with the lunch crowd is the pizzas, a traditional margherita-style and one topped with black truffles.
“If the first pizza that goes out is the truffle, everybody gets it,” says Monferrato. When the weather is nice, regulars request the patio; inside, “the beauty of the layout is, you can see everybody and be seen,” says Monferrato.
In the house: Amanda Seyfried, Simon Cowell, Emily Blunt, January Jones, Halle Berry and Food Network producer David Hoffman, who cites another reason to love Cecconi’s: “It still amazes me — the food is good, and the prices are as cheap as [local diner] Norm’s, half a mile away.”
