Michael Romanoff

A Hollywood Restaurateur

Michael Romanoff, pseudonym for Harry F. Gerguson, born Hershel Geguzin, (February 20, 1890 – September 1, 1971) was a Hollywood restaurateur, conman, and actor born in Lithuania. He is perhaps best known as the owner of the now-defunct Romanoff's, a Beverly Hills restaurant popular with Hollywood stars in the 1940s and 1950s.

Geguzin immigrated to New York City at age ten, changed his name to Harry F. Gerguson sometime after 1900 and married Gloria Lister in 1948. At times, he passed himself off as "Count Gladstone the son of William Gladstone, "Prince Michael Dimitri Alexandrovich Obolensky-Romanoff", nephew of Tsar Nicholas II, William Wellington or Arthur Wellesley. Romanoff died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California, in 1971.

Romanoff's restaurant

The décor was masculine and clubby with comfortable booths, the dance floor well waxed, the cigarette girls lovely, and the waiters well-trained and Jeeves-like.

While Romanoff's featured a typical country club-style menu with items like Waldorf salad, tomatoes stuffed with crab, filet mignon, frog legs, eggs Benedict and sausages on toast, the restaurant became known for their chocolate soufflés, which were served to each guest in an individual portion.

The restaurant closed its doors for good on New Year's Eve in 1962; however, the exterior of Romanoff's can be seen in the 1967 Fox film, A Guide for the Married Man. Romanoff himself also plays the maitre'd in a sequence in the film in a studio recreation of the restaurant's interior.

Romanoff and dogs, 1945

Para saber

Restaurateur persona que maneja un restaurant profesionalmente. Tradicionalmente el término se refería a un profesional altamente entrenado, ducho en todos los aspectos del negocio de restaurantes.

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De la web

Hollywood Photograph Collection, Romanoff´s Restaurant on Rodeo Drive, 1966

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