Opened in Los Angeles in 1922 as a roadside eatery called Montgomery’s Country Inn, the Tam O’ Shanter Inn was given a new name three years later. This legendary steakhouse remains the city’s oldest continuously operating restaurant still in its original location.

The whimsically designed storybook-style building – complete with a turret - was constructed by Hollywood movie set carpenters and is said to have inspired Snow White’s house in the original 1937 Disney animation.

This could certainly be true since Walt Disney was one of scores of celebrities who have dined at the restaurant. The Disney studios were just a few miles away and the pioneer of America’s animation industry regularly dined at table 31 with studio colleagues. Today, that table is adorned with a commemorative plaque and much in demand by Disney fans.

The Tam was founded by Lawrence Frank and Walter Van de Kamp of Van De Kamp coffee shop fame, who described themselves as ‘Scots by affection, if not by birth.’  They later founded Lawry's The Prime Rib, and today the third and fourth generations of these pioneering restaurateurs continue the founders’ legacy.

Lawry’s signature prime rib and seasoned salt originated at the Tam and is still on the menu today.

Tam O’ Shanter is a famous comic work by the Scottish poet Robert Burns about drunken misadventures and the Scottish décor in the restaurant and bar features wooden beams, stained glass and English and Scottish medieval weapons, kilts, and family coats of arms and medieval family crests.

The Tam also boasts one of the largest whiskey collections in Southern California with more than 700 bottles and many a ‘wee dram’ has been served by the tartan-clad wait staff in the ‘snug,’ the Scottish term for a small room in a pub.

This marvelous 1961 menu featured a clan gathering on its front cover and offered Scottish themed dishes inside.

Courtesy Bob Reiss.