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<\/p>\n\n\tAs mayor of Los Angeles, you want to avoid public relations disasters. So when Karen Bass returns to Max & Helen\u2019s for her second time in eight days \u2014 ostensibly because the professional photo she had taken with owner Phil Rosenthal didn\u2019t come out well \u2014 she turns down the booth he saved for her. \u201cI was going to get breakfast to go,\u201d she tells Rosenthal quietly in the back of the restaurant near the bathrooms. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to hold up the line.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe line to get into Rosenthal\u2019s new diner is eight hours on the weekend, sometimes six on a weekday, ever since it opened Nov. 18. It\u2019s the longest wait for a table in L.A., possibly in the city\u2019s history. The line, however, is not as obvious as those once photographed at Courage Bagel or Howlin\u2019 Rays. Max & Helen\u2019s diners do not stretch from 127 Larchmont Blvd. to Pasadena. Utilizing a far more civilized system, the host at the stand in front of the restaurant gives diners an oddly accurate time to return. \u201cThe neighborhood has an advantage,\u201d says Rosenthal about Larchmont Village. \u201cYou can go see a movie. Or fly to New\u00a0York.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMax & Helen\u2019s doesn\u2019t take reservations, partly because Rosenthal fears the slots being sold by bots. But mostly because it\u2019s a diner. One created with Nancy Silverton of Mozza, but still, a diner. \u201cThe raison d\u2019\u00eatre for the diner is to establish a sense of community in our community,\u201d he says. But because Rosenthal\u2019s Netflix travel show, Somebody Feed Phil, is so popular, the Max & Helen\u2019s community is quite a bit bigger than Larchmont. \u201cI sat next to a woman the first day who said she flew from Hong Kong to come to the diner,\u201d Rosenthal says. \u201cAfter I said hi to her, I went outside, and there was a couple from Brazil who flew here for this. It\u2019s insane. I don\u2019t get it. But I\u2019m not knocking it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tI\u2019m sitting with Phil in the booth at the very front of the restaurant that he\u2019d saved for the mayor. Which, if measured by the skill of pressing flesh, is a job he\u2019s more suited for than she is.<\/p>\n
\n\tI\u2019ve been friends with Phil, who ran and created Everybody Loves Raymond, for 14 years. In a business so fueled by socializing that it invented the premiere party, Phil is one of the most social people in town. He has a pizza oven for regular screening parties in his living room in Hancock Park. If he eats lunch at home, or at a restaurant with only one or two other people, something terrible has happened.<\/p>\n
\n\tSince Somebody Feed Phil debuted in 2017, conversations with Phil while walking anywhere have become a staccato affair, interrupted by the nicest people telling Phil how much they love his show and Phil telling them even more nicely how much that means to him. I\u2019ve walked a lot of cities with a lot of people more famous than Phil, and other than teen pop stars, he gets approached the most.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tRosenthal\u2019s daughter, Lily, is the keeper of the secret phone number.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCatherine Dzilenski; Restaurant Designer: Matt Winter Designs<\/p>\n
\n\tNearly all the diners who have made the eight-hour pilgrimage here are fans of the show. \u201cTen percent are food influencers who heard about the hot chocolate on TikTok,\u201d says his daughter, Lily, who runs the restaurant with her chef husband, Mason Royal. \u201cBut almost everybody else, it\u2019s like Mickey Mouse is coming to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tUsually, Phil eats at the ADA-compliant low seat at the end of the counter that\u2019s almost always unused. Then he pops up and starts greeting people. This is his favorite part. \u201cNow, I\u2019m Toots Shor,\u201d he says, referring to the legendary Manhattan saloon owner who fed everyone from Frank Sinatra to Joe DiMaggio. \u201cI\u2019ve got a fun place that people seem to like. It\u2019s exactly like making a show. We build a set, we cast it, we execute it. People come in. And instead of their laugh, you\u2019ve got their joy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe challenge is that, with only 40 seats and a few more tables recently added on the street, Phil can\u2019t seat his thousands of friends. \u201cI might be losing friends,\u201d he says as he eats an omelet Florentine. \u201cBut people have been reasonable when you tell them you can\u2019t. They see that the wait is hours long. Maybe you don\u2019t bother the guy with a \u2018Can you get me in?\u2019 \u201d he explains. Steven Spielberg<\/a>, for instance, gave him a day\u2019s notice and only wanted a table for two.<\/p>\n \n\tStill, even a small percentage of his friends texting \u201cCan you get me in\u201d is a lot of people. Add to that the industry colleagues he\u2019s built up after years of investing in restaurants, eating out in restaurants and taping segments in restaurants, and you\u2019ve got a potential to lose your status as one of the nicest people in Hollywood.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cDad, do you want to show your trick? Do you have them in your pocket?\u201d asks Lily, who has joined us at the booth.<\/p>\n \n\tPhil reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a thick stack of \u201cMax and Helen\u2019s\u201d business cards that he calls \u201cthe magic ticket.\u201d It\u2019s just Lily\u2019s cell number.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI don\u2019t give these to everybody,\u201d Phil says, in a way I don\u2019t quite believe. Then he explains. \u201cBecause most of the time, I\u2019m getting a text. Then I will forward that text to Lily. I ask if it\u2019s OK. And she will say yes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI don\u2019t mind it so much,\u201d Lily says. \u201cBecause I\u2019ve been there. I have texted friends of mine, saying, \u2018Can you help me get a table at this place?\u2019 And I don\u2019t want to be the one that\u2019s like, \u2018You all helped me all these years get into all these incredible restaurants. And now the tables have turned and I say no.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPhil agrees. \u201cI love the idea of a kind of mutual, professional courtesy. We\u2019re all brothers and sisters in this world, and only people who do this for a living understand it,\u201d he says. Although he thinks it\u2019s preferable if the daughters of the brothers and sisters do the courtesy-ing.<\/p>\n \n\tSo Phil\u2019s friends are getting in. He just spaces them out so his fans who traveled here can get in, too, as long as they wait eight hours. Which is another thing that worries him. \u201cYou wait hours, it better be a damn good pancake,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n