At first glance, the Hollywood restaurant Kate Mantilini's seems an unusual backdrop for life-sized pictures of Mad Men, a show set in 1960s New York. That is, until owner Marilyn Lewis provides the back story.
Q: What's the history behind Kate Mantilini's and why did you put up the Mad Men display.
A: It's been 21 years since we opened Kate Mantilini's, which I
named after my Uncle Rob's mistress. My mother wouldn't let me speak to
her, nobody would allow us to mention her name, but she was a very
strong woman and I wanted to name my restaurant after her. My husband
was under contract with Warner Brothers, and he did 50 films in the
1940s before we went into the restaurant business.
I’ve had some interesting influences in my life. Two of them were goats. Both were in baseball, but in very different ways.