The deeply weird, very L.A. survival story of star-studded Dan Tana's

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Set us as preferred The story of Dan Tana’s, in many ways, is the story of Los Angeles.In 1980, Dan Tana’s burst into flames.At the time, the Tana family was vacationing on a remote Yugoslav island when a telegram arrived: “The restaurant burned down.

Call me, Pearl,” recalls Katerina Tana, one of Dan Tana’s daughters.On the Shelf Everybody Came to Tana's: An American Dream Come True By Dan Tana Radius Book Group: 384 pages, $30If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.Dan Tana flew back to Los Angeles, expecting charred remains.Instead, he found handwritten signs taped to the restaurant’s door: “Rebuild it.

This is our home.Don’t change a thing,” recounts Katerina.News of the fire reached musician Linda Ronstadt, who swore that Dan Tana’s served the best plate of spaghetti in the world.

The rock star became the immigrant-run restaurant’s unlikely patron saint, calling on her relationship with then-Gov.Jerry Brown to help clear the way for its reopening.

Just six weeks after the fire, Dan Tana’s welcomed customers again, even without a roof.“They open up the restaurant with no roof on it.There’s no air conditioning unit.

It was the hottest day,” says Katerina.Oddly, the fire ushered in a new era for Dan Tana’s — a rebirth, even.Like Los Angeles, the restaurant endured by reinventing itself.

“In a weird way, he rebuilt better than he ever could have, because if the restaurant hadn’t burned down, it might not have lasted this long,” Katerina says.Stories like these fill the pages of “Everybody Came to Tana’s,” the late restaurateur’s memoir, which chronicles the outlandish journey that carried a young immigrant from communist then-Yugoslavia to the helm of one of Los Angeles’ most adored ...