Jaws have been dropping over Top Chef alum Jamie Lauren’s new German gastro pub Wolfslair, which bowed in Hollywood on Jan. 12 at the former site of Ivan Kane’s Café Was – and it’s not over the food. After all, Wolf’s Lair was the name of Adolf Hitler’s infamous Eastern Front bunker headquarters in Poland.
When reached for comment, restaurant owner Art Davis (whose portfolio also includes S&M-themed West Hollywood club Voyeur, the site of the 2010 Republican National Committee expense-account scandal) claimed to be unaware of the historical connection.
“I named it after the Wolf’s Lair property near Lake Hollywood, which is currently owned by Moby,” he tells THR, referring to the French-style castle built in the 1920s by Hollywoodland real estate developer L. Milton Wolf, and later held by Doris Day and Bob Crane. “I’ve tried to buy it myself in the past.” Davis is quick to note that he’s Jewish, and that the bratwurst is served with a side of warm challah bread.
So what’s Moby’s take? “It does seem a bit odd,” says the musician, himself half-Jewish. “But my Wolf’s Lair pre-dated Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair by about 15 years.”
