Where to Dine With the Rich & Famous
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The Polo Bar
You shouldn’t base your restaurant visits on the famous faces you might see, but there are some places where you’re more likely to run into Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Drake and Rihanna, or Kendall and Kylie Jenner, than others. Assuming your budget lets you dine among the stars from time to time, here are a few of those tried-and-true celebrity hotspots.
Nobu
It’s hard to overstate the massive appeal of Nobu, the sleek restaurant where chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s beautiful cuisine and David Rockwell’s Japanese-inspired architecture call like a siren song to celebrities. As the story goes, it was the chef’s hit LA restaurant, Matsuhisa, that prompted Robert De Niro to request that he open a concept in New York. The restaurant that followed was Nobu, followed by Nobu Next Door, Nobu 57, and several global spinoffs, all of which are beloved by huge industry names, whether that industry is music, film, or reality television. Most recently, Drake and Future shouted out Nobu on Jumpman, but the restaurant is just as beloved by the whole Kardashian-Jenner dynasty, Kanye West, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, Rihanna, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Vin Diesel, Kit Harrington (Jon Snow), Selena Gomez, and countless others.
Worldwide; Flagship location: 105 Hudson Street, Tribeca, NYC
The Spotted Pig
Mario Batali and Jay-Z are both investors in this hip West Village gastropub, where celebrity chef April Bloomfield’s cool, yet inviting vision of British and Italian cooking guarantees a place that’s constantly packed. Kanye has sung the praises of Bloomfield’s restaurant, though Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Ryan Gosling, and Lebron James have all paid this dining room a visit.
314 W 11th Street, West Village, NYC
The Polo Bar
The Polo Bar
There’s a reason why it’s notoriously difficult to get a table at The Polo Bar, a New York restaurant by designer Ralph Lauren — and that’s because the stars have beat you to it. Tom Hanks, Drew Barrymore, Woody Allen, Narciso Rodriguez, Jerry Seinfeld, and Barbara Streisand are among those who have enjoyed this ultra-classic, all-American restaurant that looks like the decadent dining hall of a very exclusive hunting lodge.
1 East 55th Street, Midtown East, NYC
The Nice Guy
Billed as a “bar/lounge hybrid experience,” The Nice Guy in LA is beloved by young stars like Kylie Jenner and Tyga, Drake, Zayn Malik, Gigi and Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin, Maisie Williams, and Rachel Zoe, to name a few. This clubby restaurant is just as popular with the paparazzi, who can pretty much guarantee great pictures any time they want. Kylie Jenner chose The Nice Guy for her 19th birthday party, which included the rest of her famous family as well as Tyga and ASAP Rocky, among others. A few weeks later, Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg also stopped by.
401 N. La Cienega Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA
Giorgio Baldi
Giorgio Baldi is another one of those restaurants that draws big names like a magnet. A family-run Italian restaurant that serves fresh homemade pasta and seafood right by the ocean, Giorgio Baldi is a (relatively) private place for celebrities — like Rihanna, Steven Spielberg, Kim and Kanye, Michelle Rodriguez, Bradley Cooper, George and Amal Clooney, John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, and supermodel Cindy Crawford — to escape the frenzy of LA. “If I am in town six days, I’m here six days a week,” Rihanna told Vogue of the restaurant in a 2012 interview.
114 West Channel Road, Santa Monica Canyon, CA
Gjelina
Chef Travis Lett’s infectiously popular approach to modern California cuisine, heavy on fresh fish and vegetables, has attracted celebrities like Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied, Julia Roberts, Ryan Seacrest, and Prince Harry himself.
1429 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, Venice, CA
Chicago Cut Steakhouse
Celebrities like the Obamas, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Woody Allen, Michael Bay, Bill Murray, Charles Barkley, and Chris Tucker are all big fans of Chicago Cut, an upscale steakhouse that overlooks like Chicago River. Before he retired from the show in 2014, Craig Ferguson used The Late Late Show to say of a recent dinner here, “I don’t know if you’ve ever had a steak out there in Chicago, but they know what they’re doing.”
300 N. LaSalle, Chicago, IL
RPM Italian
Since opening in 2012, Bill and Giuliana Rancic’s Chicago restaurant, helmed by the accomplished chef Doug Psaltis, has hosted celebrities like Michael Jordan, Lady Gaga, Lebron James, Michell Obama, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, and Dwayne Wade. RPM’s sister restaurants, RPM Steak in Chicago and RPM Italian in Washington, DC., are also big with A-listers.
52 W. Illinois St, Chicago, IL
Blue Duck Tavern
This Michelin-starred DC restaurant where seasonal ingredients run the show is as beloved by stars as well as critics. The Obamas, Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Springsteen, Ben Affleck, Harrison Ford, and Reese Witherspoon have all dined at the Tavern. In its first edition of the DC Michelin Guide in 2016, Blue Duck was one of 12 restaurants to receive a Michelin star, which it has retained in the 2017 edition.
1201 24th St NW, Washington, DC
Fiola Mare
Hollywood and Capitol HIll converge at this seafood-centric Italian joint in Georgetown, where the Obamas and Bidens stop in regularly, as do Larry David and Pierce Brosnan. Its sister restaurant, Fiola, has hosted Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, and Katherine Heigl.
3100 K St NW, Washington, DC
Uchi
Uchi and its sister restaurant, Uchiko, are two of Austin’s most popular restaurants, and their chef, Tyson Cole, has grown into a celebrity in his own right. Brooklyn Decker, Andy Roddick, and Elijah Wood all love the “Japanese farmhouse” approach Cole is known for and both restaurants accepts only a limited number of reservations per night, so in theory, your chances of getting in are about as good as a famous person’s.
801 South Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX
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