{"id":224051,"date":"2026-03-17T18:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/224051\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T18:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:37:09","slug":"how-max-helens-handles-long-wait-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/224051\/","title":{"rendered":"How Max & Helen’s Handles Long Wait Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The husband-and-wife duo steering the ship \u2014 creative director Lily Rosenthal Royal and chef Mason Royal\u2014 explain\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

One Angeleno couple was on the way to the hospital to deliver their baby when they had to make a pit-stop: one last meal at\u00a0Max\u00a0&\u00a0Helen\u2019s<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was pretty surreal,\u201d says Lily Rosenthal Royal, creative director of the Larchmont Village diner\u00a0and daughter of TV writer and producer Phil Rosenthal, who is co-owner with L.A.\u00a0restaurateur\u00a0grand dame Nancy Silverton.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Max\u00a0&\u00a0Helen\u2019s opened last November and quickly became a hit, serving up\u00a0\u201ccomfort food, but with quality ingredients and more technique\u201d (as Silverton told\u00a0Los Angeles<\/a>\u00a0last fall) in the former Le Petite Greek space. It\u00a0seats\u00a0up to\u00a080 guests, including the back patio, meaning a\u00a0Saturday morning\u00a0has been known to\u00a0result in a four-hour-plus\u00a0wait\u00a0(Max & Helen\u2019s does not take reservations).\u00a0<\/p>\n

In less than six months,\u00a0the diner\u00a0has attracted visitors\u00a0from around-the-world, a celebrity clientele\u00a0and\u00a0national\u00a0media looking to understand the phenomenon, resulting in headlines like\u00a0\u201cThe Power Diner Where Even Spielberg Has to Wait\u201d from\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter\u00a0and \u201cWould You Wait 8 Hours for This Waffle?\u201d from\u00a0New York Magazine\u2019s\u00a0food and restaurant outlet\u00a0Grub Street.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Max\u00a0&\u00a0Helen\u2019s mission to mix the power of diner nostalgia with best-in-class ingredients and cooking, the reason for the buzz is\u00a0evident.\u00a0Max\u2019s Fluffy Eggs deliver three ultra-soft scrambled eggs, while the waffle with maple butter tops the griddle item with a butter-maple syrup concoction. \u201cOur tuna melt is unbelievable,\u201d says Rosenthal Royal\u00a0of her favorite savory menu item (She\u2019s\u00a0also\u00a0a big fan\u00a0of the pancake).\u00a0\u201cWe use new school American cheese, and\u00a0it\u2019s just my favorite tuna melt I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Lily\"LilyCredit: Catherine Dzilenski<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, her husband, chef Mason Royal, deems the patty\u00a0melt\u00a0as his favorite.\u00a0\u201cI think the one we do is a great representation of what\u00a0a patty\u00a0melt should be. It\u2019s\u00a0dry-aged beef blend,\u00a0so it\u2019s really meaty.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a lot of short\u00a0rib, dry-aged scraps, high fat\u00a0content, so\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0full of flavor. And\u00a0we\u00a0melt some great Gruy\u00e8re\u00a0cheese on it, and we do\u00a0these\u00a0large, caramelized\u00a0onion rings\u00a0on top of it. And the bread is amazing. It comes from Suzanne\u00a0Goin\u2019s\u00a0bakery, Larder.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s\u00a0also the social media-hyped (and\u00a0just plain\u00a0excellent)\u00a0Lily\u2019s Hot Chocolate, which the team served at Los Angeles\u2019 Best New Restaurants event<\/a> in February. \u201cThere\u2019s a common misconception that it\u2019s my recipe,\u201d Rosenthal\u00a0Royal says. \u201cI really just have a wonderful husband who wanted to call it Lily\u2019s\u00a0Hot\u00a0Chocolate because I begged him to put it on the menu.\u201d\u00a0The Parisian-style beverage, Royal explains, is made from a blend of Valrhona chocolate, milk and cream that reduces over the stove for a few hours until thick.\u00a0Torched homemade\u00a0marshmallow fluff is served on top.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0fun because\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0really\u00a0like\u00a0a big\u00a0kids\u00a0menu,\u201d says\u00a0Rosenthal Royal. \u201cIt\u2019s all things that we just know and love from childhood.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Max\u00a0&\u00a0Helen\u2019s success is\u00a0largely in\u00a0credit to a hard-working team. Rosenthal Royal says her favorite part of the process was hiring staff. \u201cSo much of this job and working in a restaurant is about interactions with people,\u201d she\u00a0explains. \u201cYou have to have people that are kind and warm and embody what we are trying to embody as a restaurant, as a brand, as a culture.\u201d The duo set out on hiring a mix of\u00a0newcomers and\u00a0experienced staff, including kitchen\u00a0staff and managers from\u00a0previous\u00a0restaurant groups Royal ran.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have the right attitude\u00a0and we felt like it was a match\u00a0from a service standpoint, we\u00a0felt like we have the tools and the systems to bring these people in and train them and get them to where we need them to be,\u201d Royal says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Mason\"MasonCredit: Catherine Dzilenski Wilson<\/p>\n

During peak busy hours, like weekend mornings, two to three hosts will take on the crowd, alongside\u00a0the help of\u00a0Rosenthal Royal, Mason and\u00a0other managers as needed \u2014 and handy dandy OpenTable to organize\u00a0seating.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is certainly a high-volume restaurant,\u201d says Royal, who helps\u00a0maintain\u00a0the pace by jumping on tables or at the kitchen pass whenever staff is\u00a0feeling overwhelmed. \u201cUltimately, they\u00a0want to be heard, and they want to feel like\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0supported, and so a lot of times it\u2019s just as easy as asking them, \u2018What can I do for you\u00a0in\u00a0this moment?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The same goes for dealing with frustrated guests. \u201cWe just want to make them feel heard, and so\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0taking the time to hear what they have to say, making sure that\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a reasonable request, what\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0asking of you,\u00a0and doing our best within the confines of what we do\u00a0\u2026\u00a0 to be able to best accommodate them.\u201d\u00a0By the time they leave, the goal is that the food and service\u00a0prove\u00a0to be worth the wait.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rosenthal Royal recalls a man who came in and brought them a gift as a thank you for seating him at the counter by himself,\u00a0right\u00a0next to a woman who was also dining solo.\u00a0The two are now dating. \u201cLove blossoming from our restaurant, it\u2019s a dream,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The husband-and-wife duo steering the ship \u2014 creative director Lily Rosenthal Royal and chef Mason Royal\u2014 explain\u00a0\u00a0 One…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,99913,47,50,49,102145,15911],"class_list":["post-224051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-larchmont-village","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-max-helens","tag-phil-rosenthal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}