Spago Beverly Hills
Restaurant in Beverly Hills, CaliforniaWikipedia
37
MENTIONS
15
EPISODES
14
PODCASTS
Search complete. 37 mentions across 15 episodes found for "Spago Beverly Hills".
Nov 4, 2026
Niki VahleGUEST
R.I.P.
Niki VahleGUEST
But also it's hard to not say OG Spago.
Niki VahleGUEST
Gotta know what that was like.
Matt RodbardHOST
The one thing you can't resist splurging on when you're dining out at a restaurant.
Doug ShaferHOST
We actually would scrape Schaefer labels off and put the restaurant labels on.
Andy DemskyHOST
I remember seeing a label that had, and I want to say it was a Spago label.
Andy DemskyHOST
We did a Spago thing with Chardonnay.
Andy DemskyHOST
Yeah.
Andy DemskyHOST
And it was like an Andy Warhol illustration because Spago was, you know, it.
Andy DemskyHOST
It was the
Doug ShaferHOST
hip face.
Mike SeidlHOST
You put one in place and then you thought, wait a minute, there's something here.
Mike SeidlHOST
What did you learn from a 50,000-foot view bringing a concept like Spago and Hard Rock Cafe, finding them spaces, etc.? I mean, that's really high-level stuff, especially for somebody who didn't have experience.
Mike SeidlHOST
Well,
Will KnoxGUEST
you talk about 50,000.
10 MINS LATER
Will KnoxGUEST
And he would say to me constantly, he goes, you know, they're coming to my restaurant now, but they'll go across the street to the next best thing when that opens up.
Will KnoxGUEST
So I always got to be on my toes.
Will KnoxGUEST
And, you know, as an operator and you still, by the way, if you go into a Wolfgang Puck Spago restaurant or other operation, you you could very well see Wolf working the floor.
Will KnoxGUEST
These guys who are good are constantly at it, and it's a tough, tough gig.
Dave WeekleyHOST
Now, Amy, I've got to ask.
Dave WeekleyHOST
You sent this in a note to me today that you were at Spago last night in L.A. And Wolfgang Puck came over to your table.
Dave WeekleyHOST
So when Wolfgang came to your table, did you tell him that, you know, the beans were cold and take these back to the kitchen? What does Wolfgang Puck say when he comes to the table?
Amy SmithGUEST
Well, I'll tell you, at our table, some of our Saudi Arabian friends were there, and they said, oh, we miss you because you had a restaurant in Saudi Arabia.
Tim McKirdyHOST
Definitely sounds like a German, if not Austrian name, right? Germanic language, right? I wonder what was going on in L.A.
Tim McKirdyHOST
at that time, because then I was like, oh, wait, I wonder if he was friends with Wolfgang Puck and Spago, right? Was
Sother TeagueHOST
Spago Wolfgang? Yeah, of course.
Tim McKirdyHOST
I wonder whether there is a mini kind of, yeah.
Tim McKirdyHOST
I don't know.
Dan RyanHOST
Today's guest has been immersed in the hospitality industry since he was 13 years old.
Dan RyanHOST
He's trained in the dining rooms of the Tribeca Grill, Spago, and Tabla, and open restaurants at the Museum of Modern Art.
Dan RyanHOST
He's the author of many books, including a new one coming out, or which would have just come out on the 25th, called Unreasonable Hospitality.
Dan RyanHOST
Ladies and gentlemen, one of my heroes and a purveyor of incredible experiences for me personally, Mr.
AaronHOST
See, it's not special.
AaronHOST
Spago or Nobu or one of those really expensive restaurants that he gets to go to because he's an elitist who stole billions of dollars.
AaronHOST
Here's the deal.
AaronHOST
Cheesecake Factory is a nice restaurant that is, I mean, it's not cheap, but it's certainly not, you know, a hundred dollar a plate dinner.
Matt LickliderGUEST
And we trusted in doing so and adhering to that, we were going to go find our audience.
Matt LickliderGUEST
And I'll never forget too, when we were starting Glioco and my partner at the time was a wine director, Kevin O'Connor at Spago Beverly Hills.
Matt LickliderGUEST
So he was in this position where he was tasting everything from everyone in the world.
Matt LickliderGUEST
Everyone was bringing wine for him to evaluate.
Rick RosenfieldGUEST
I'm not sure who put that name on it, quite frankly.
Rick RosenfieldGUEST
But then Wolfgang Puck, the famous celebrity chef, who became famous over this, opened his Spago in Los Angeles.
Rick RosenfieldGUEST
And he brought down a creative pizza chef that was experimenting in San Francisco down and created duck sausage pizza and smoked salmon pizza.
Rick RosenfieldGUEST
And so that's where it sort of stood at the time that we thought, we meaning my partner and I said, you know, this is a great idea.
Rick RosenfieldGUEST
This should be not for celebrities.
Rick RosenfieldGUEST
I don't mean not for celebrities, but not so much for celebrities at Spago where you couldn't get a reservation.
Rick RosenfieldGUEST
But this would fit a family setting, this idea of having this individual size pizza and having getting away from, you know, all the traditional toppings that are the American toppings.
Rick RosenfieldGUEST
And it felt like an innovative way to go about it.
Greg VoisenHOST
Now, you know, one of the things that, um, what you s- the critics said to you at the time is California pizza isn't real pizza.
Greg VoisenHOST
The chef from Spago told you-
Rick RosenfieldGUEST
They still say that, by the way.
Rick RosenfieldGUEST
[laughs]
Rick RosenfieldGUEST
And she started putting fresh toppings on pizza, and goat cheese, right? Something new, getting away from tomato sauce, not your traditional pizzas, you know?
Greg VoisenHOST
Yeah.
Rick RosenfieldGUEST
And, and, and then Wolfgang Puck was making it famous with Spago down in LA with duck sausage pizza and smoked salmon pizza.
Rick RosenfieldGUEST
And Puck had brought in, brought down to create these pizzas, a guy by the name of Edward Woo from Northern California.
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