"This is my favorite chopped salad in L.A.," said Rich Ross, a former chairman of Walt Disney Studios, of the Highland restaurant Ammo. Shine America's current CEO recently signed a multiyear development deal with super-producer Nigel Lythgoe, the powerhouse behind American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance? "I never worry about telephones on the table during lunch. We all have business to take care of," Lythgoe said.
Noah WebbA version of this story first appeared in the Aug. 14 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
Only eight months after managing partner Benny Bohm — the charismatic front-of-house face — left for The Standard in West Hollywood, Ammo is calling it quits on Highland Avenue and returning to its more humble roots as a to-go spot and catering operation. The restaurant, which started in 1996 and went full-service a few years later, was located at the ideal midpoint for meetings of Valley and Westside players and was known for its midcentury-chic dining room.
Regulars included Fox’s Dana Walden, Discovery’s Rich Ross, NBC’s Jennifer Salke and Universal’s Donna Langley, which helped land it in the No. 5 spot on The Hollywood Reporter‘s annual industry-polled Power Lunch list this year. “In a town where restaurants come and go like movie releases, Ammo is a mainstay, an enduring institution,” producer John Goldwyn told THR in 2014.
It’ll reopen in a few months at a new address on Melrose just east of La Brea. (Don’t worry, owner Amy Sweeney still will be serving up the famous Alexander’s brown rice stir-fry bowl.) “Hey, it had a good run!” says Bohm, who attended the final night of service July 31.
