The Eat Sheet: Where to Dine Before Catching a Showing of 'The Artist'

With its swooning lovers, glamorous 1927-set L.A. scenery and charming score, the Oscar-buzzed silent film The Artist, now in theatres, is the quintessential date movie. To make a full throwback night of it in appropriate style, secure a reservation at one of these Deco-minded restaurants boasting retro fare.

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Cicada
The filmmakers made use of the grand Art Deco dining room downtown for a crucial scene in which the Douglas Fairbanks-esque George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) overhears blossoming talkie starlet Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) at the next table dismissing the over-acting of silent stars. In real life, expect Northern Italian standards. 617 S. Olive St., L.A., 213.488.9488, cicadarestaurant.com

PHOTOS: The Making of 'The Artist'

Traxx
Also downtown, in the historic, romantic Union Station—where Deco combines with Spanish Colonial Revival architecture—sits this nearly 15-year-old New American restaurant where the classic plates include a Waldorf salad and a hangar steak with whiskey peppercorn sauce. 800 N. Alameda St., L.A., 213.625.1999, traxxrestaurant.com

The Tar Pit
Campanile’s Mark Peel opened this contempo-Deco fantasia, replete with palm-fronded grating between booths, a few years ago in mid-city. But it feels, as it should, like it’s been around forever. Which, of course, is precisely the idea, advanced by presenting stuck-in-time dishes that run from fried oyster appetizers to desserts like bananas foster. 609 N. La Brea Ave., L.A., 323.965.1300, tarpitbar.com

The Tower Bar
This wood-paneled clubhouse for today’s Hollywood heavies (Johnny Depp, Sherry Lansing) on the lobby level of the Deco-styled Sunset Tower hotel is drawn longingly out of the past. Exhibit A: Items like chicken paillard on the menu. Exhibit B: The solicitous old-world ministrations of beloved maitre d’ Dmitri Dmitrov. 8358 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 323.848.6677, sunsettowerhotel.com

FOR AN EQUALLY ELEGANT POST-SCREENING DRINK

Bar Chloe 1449 2nd St., Santa Monica, 310.899.6999, barchloe.com

The Spare Room 7000 Hollywood Blvd., L.A., 323.769.7296, spareroomhollywood.com

Cameo Bar 1819 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica, 310.260.7500, viceroyhotelsandresorts.com/santamonica

The Edison 108 W. 2nd St., L.A., 213.613.0000, edisondowntown.com