Lawry's
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Lawry's The Prime Rib is a well-known restaurant on Restaurant Row on La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. Founded by Lawrence L. Frank and Walter Van de Kamp, it opened in 1938 and for many years was unique among restaurants in having but a single entrée on its menu, standing rib roast. It now serves a few additional entrées but is still generally considered to be a roast beef restaurant. A 1953 menu from Lawry's claims that it was also "the first to feature a green salad as an integral part of every meal." The roast beef at the restaurant is served from a large silver cart pushed from table to table, where the meat is then carved to order.
In 1938 Lawry's also began marketing its seasoned salt in retail stores. This was the beginning of a food products empire that now sells many kinds of seasonings and flavorings under the Lawry's name. These products are now owned by Unilever.
In 1947 Lawry's moved from its original location on La Cienega to the other side of the street and a few blocks further south, to a larger, windowless, strikingly modernistic building designed by Wayne McAllister. In 1993 it moved back to a new building on the original site.
In 1956, just prior to the playing of the 1957 Rose Bowl Game between Oregon State and Iowa, Lawry's entertained the two competing teams. This started an annual tradition of hosting both Rose Bowl-bound teams for a prime rib dinner. By the early 1960s, the event had become known as the "Lawry's Beef Bowl." A book chronicling the last 50 years of the Rose Bowl Game and the first 50 years of the Beef Bowl, "Road to the Rose Bowl", was published in 2005. Featuring a foreword by ABC Sports broadcaster Keith Jackson, it has more than 450 photos and recollections from both Rose Bowl players and coaches of the past 50 years.
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[edit] Competitors
A similar restaurant in San Francisco, The House of Prime Rib, on Van Ness Avenue, is sometimes erroneously claimed to have antedated Lawry's. The House of Prime Rib, however, did not open until 1949. [1]
[edit] Chain
Lawry's The Prime Rib is owned by Lawry's Restaurants Inc. Lawry's restaurants include:
- Lawry's The Prime Rib
- Beverly Hills, California (1938)
- Chicago, Illinois (1974)
- Dallas, Texas (1982)
- Las Vegas, Nevada (1997)
- Singapore (1999)
- Tokyo, Japan (2001)
- Taipei, Taiwan (2002)
- Causeway Bay, Hong Kong (2006)
- Five Crowns, Corona del Mar, California (1965)
- Tam O'Shanter Inn, Los Angeles, California (1922)
- Lawry's Carvery, Costa Mesa, California
