Los Angeles (AFP)

From Charlie Chaplin to Quentin Tarantino, most of the Hollywood stars have been to the Musso & Frank restaurant in Los Angeles, which has also become a legend in film and celebrated its centenary on Friday.

The restaurant prides itself on treating unknown guests and celebrities alike, but admits to making an exception when Tarantino came to ask for a favor. For his latest film, "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood", the director wanted to privatize the establishment for five days, the time to film Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Al Pacino enjoying whiskey sour and Bloody Mary leaning at his legendary bar.

"We had never closed the restaurant for any film, but when Quentin came to see us and told us what he was thinking about, we really wanted to be part of it," Mark Echeverria told AFP. owner of the restaurant that celebrated his 100th birthday on Friday.

"We love Quentin for life, for death, he's been here for a long time," he says.

Musso & Frank, located on Hollywood's famous Hollywood Boulevard, is one of the many historic places that punctuate Tarantino's movie, an ode to his childhood in Los Angeles in the 1960s.

Many others before him had adopted the restaurant known for its discretion and its dark wood paneling. There are countless stars who have used his red leather benches, Charlie Chaplin who came riding on Buster Keaton who shot "Frigo Mover" in 1922.

He has continued to attract his share of icons over the decades, including Humphrey Bogart and Rita Hayworth, then Marilyn Monroe and Steve McQueen.

Writers such as Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and Francis Scott Fitzgerald have also included the restaurant, and its martinis, in their novels.

The current leader, JP Amateau, remembers a meeting with another kind of celebrity: the former British Prime Minister "Margaret Thatcher, she had ordered lamb chops!" "She came to see me and she wanted to know what chop was and where the lamb came from," he told AFP.

Hailing from a century of good and loyal service, Musso & Frank became Friday the first restaurant to have its star on Hollywood Boulevard.

© 2019 AFP