Versailles is a chain of five Cuban cuisine restaurants in Los Angeles, California, USA. The first restaurant in this chain opened in 1981 in West Los Angeles, specifically in Culver City on Venice Blvd.
Description
According to Max Jacobson:
It's a big, vulgar, brassy box, where waiters overdress in white shirts and black bow ties, salsa music drowns out an already impossible noise level and garlic-roasted chicken is the undisputed king. How did we ever get along without it?
— Max Jacobson[1]
Versailles serves dishes including "Moors and Christians" (as black beans with white rice are called), ropa vieja (a stringy beef stew), eastin lechón (suckling pig with sliced onions),[2] as well as beef tongue, sautéed ox tail, halibut in garlic sauce, and roast chicken in Mojo sauce. The restaurant's "trademark" is the garlic sauce it serves on its shredded roast pork and chicken.[2]
The Lonely Planet guide to California calls it "Country-style Cuban at its finest".[3] In a guide to law schools, the Versailles near UCLA is called a favorite[4] and restaurant critic Jonathan Gold wrote in Counter Intelligence that "everybody but me" adores the chicken, black beans, avocado salad and other offerings.[5] TheResident Tourist guide calls it a "Cuban-cuisine dream of a local chain that is good and cheap.".[6] Best Places Los Angeles describes several of the dishes as very good, and calls the chicken with garlic sauce a must, giving it two stars and noting "garlic lovers gather at Versailles, where they often wait in line for a table to order the signature Cuban chicken ... at this casual, dark, divish Havanah style restaurant ..."[7] Meals are commonly served with rice, black beans and fried plantains.[7]
British actress Helen Mirren described an ideal weekend in Los Angeles as going to the beach and having dinner at Versailles.[8]
As of 2009 there were five locations including the original in Culver City on Venice Blvd., and additional branches in Los Angeles on La Cienega Boulevard (34°03′09″N 118°22′35″W / 34.0526°N 118.3764°W), Encino, Manhattan Beach, and Universal City Citywalk. Manhattan Beach and Universal City locations were closed.
As of 2020 Orlando Garcia, 84, and his 76-year-old wife, Nora, filed suit last Sept. 5 against their son, William, his wife, Barbara, and CPA Leonard De Los Prados. According to their complaint, the elder Garcias were the owners of the three-restaurant chain.
They alleged they entrusted their son to manage their financial and business affairs because of their limited English-speaking abilities and Orlando’s health problems. Instead, their son and the other defendants allegedly defrauded the couple out of most of their assets, according to their court papers.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gregory Keosian told a jury scheduled to hearing opening statements in trial of the case this morning that the parties were “able to hash out their differences over the weekend.”
Before dismissing the panel, Keosian said the jury’s impanelment on Friday played a positive role in bringing about the settlement because both sides by then had a good incentive to resolve their differences.
The judge, who said he has been to the Versailles chain’s Encino location, said he will now feel more comfortable going there again given that the litigation is over and his impartiality will not come into question. The other Versailles locations are in the Pico-Robertson district of Los Angeles and in Culver City.
The defense attorneys maintained in their court papers that William Garcia started the restaurants and hired his parents to work for him as cooks. They also maintained that William Garcia owned the restaurants — the first of which opened in 1981 — and the assets.
Orlando Garcia, who is confined to a wheelchair, and his son hugged in the courtroom after the settlement was announced. As jurors departed the courtroom, some made comments to the parties.
“I’m glad you guys got it together,” a female juror told William Garcia.
References
- ^ A Taste of Cuba L.A.'s Versailles has been imported to the Valley with the same garlic chicken and the same long lines. Oct 23, 1992 Page: 30 (Restaurant Review) LA Times
- ^ a b LA Times/Frommers[dead link]
- ^ Andrea Schulte-Peevers; Sara Benson (2006). California. Ediz. Inglese. Lonely Planet. pp. 542–. ISBN 978-1-74059-951-1.
- ^ Editors, Vault (February 7, 2006). The Law School Buzz Book. Vault Inc. ISBN 9781581314014 – via Google Books.
{{cite book}}:|last=has generic name (help) - ^ Jonathan Gold (1 December 2000). Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles. St. Martin's Press. pp. 312–. ISBN 978-0-312-27634-8.
- ^ Kelly Mayfield; Chuck Mindenhall; Aaron Fontana (13 December 2002). Resident Tourist: Los Angeles. St. Martin's Press. pp. 95–. ISBN 978-0-312-29060-3.
- ^ a b Stephanie Avnet Yates (November 2001). Best Places Los Angeles. Sasquatch Books. pp. 44–. ISBN 978-1-57061-278-7.
- ^ Swann, Yvonne (2008-10-03). "My perfect weekend: Helen Mirren". ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
The day would end with a lovely dinner. My favourite kind of evening would be to go to a Cuban restaurant, called Versailles, with all my family: my nephew, my two stepsons and my sister. Nothing could be better. The Versailles is a very casual restaurant—not posh at all—and the food is fantastic.
- ^ https://www.dailynews.com/2020/02/10/family-settles-feud-over-versailles-cuban-restaurants/