California's Chinese Restaurant With Tasty Cuisine And Vintage Flair Was Once A Favorite Of Humphrey Bogart

If you close your eyes, you can see it: Humphrey Bogart, hunched over a scotch in a bar's dim amber glow. John Wayne is slumped in a red leather booth nearby. Marilyn Monroe is laughing at the waistcoated bartender who pours a long stream of vodka into a coupe. Of all the gin joints in the world, a scene like that could very well have unfolded at The Formosa Café on Santa Monica Boulevard during Hollywood's Golden Age. While the stars have faded, the Formosa endures — a relic of old-school glamour, Asian fare, and cocktails named after legends.

The restaurant's origins are somewhat hazy, but according to PBS SoCal, it began around 1925 as a lunch counter called Red Spot. However, SF Gate and Hollywood Authentic say the name was actually Red Post Cafe. Either way, it was primely located across from Samuel Goldwyn Studios. Some say the back dining room — a converted circa-1904 Pacific Electric Red Car trolley, per Discover Los Angeles — came first, others claim it was added later. SF Gate reports the café was also, briefly, a steakhouse. But by 1939, Red Spot had become the Formosa, named after Ilha Formosa, the Portuguese name for Taiwan, meaning beautiful island.

Decked in ornate, moody décor and with a Cantonese-inspired menu, The Formosa Café drew in mobsters like Bugsy Seigel, who even had a safe installed under his favorite booth there. Like Musso & Frank Grill, Hollywood's oldest continuously operating restaurant, the place became a watering hole and hideaway for celebrities like Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Frank Sinatra. Later, Bono, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matthew Perry kept the party going. The restaurant even featured in the 1997 film "L.A. Confidential." After several uncertain years, the Formosa closed in 2017 for restoration but reopened in 2019 under its distinct, jade-green neon signage — a true Hollywood landmark.

Step inside The Formosa Café, and you're transported to a Prohibition-era speakeasy. The low-lit dining room glows beneath custom red velvet wallpaper accented in gold and lined with black-and-white photos. A second dining room — once an open-air smoking patio — has been reimagined with nods to influential Asian actors. Find it all under a custom-built pagoda, where a bar serves Tiki cocktails. Guests can request booths once favored by Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and Ava Gardner, pull up a seat alongside Humphrey Bogart's old haunt at the bar, or settle into a banquette inside the historic trolley car. A back room attached to the trolley — once rumored to be a mobsters' office, per Hollywood Authentic — now serves as a private dining room, complete with a rotary phone for ordering from the bar. Praising the café's "classic" Hollywood vibe, one Tripadvisor said: "There aren't any places like Formosa anywhere else."

In a city celebrated for culinary diversity everywhere from Koreatown to the San Gabriel Valley (home to some of Southern California's best Asian food), you come to Formosa for the atmosphere. Still, the family-style menu delivers crowd-pleasers like walnut shrimp, chow fun, and marinated cucumbers. Happy hour ("golden hour," at Formosa) runs daily from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., featuring cocktails like the aviation-style Howard Hughes and snacks such as Kung Pao brussels sprouts.

If you're looking to retrace more of Bogart's steps through Hollywood's Golden Age, head to Florida for a cruise on the African Queen. The restored steamboat from Bogart's Oscar-winning movie with Katherine Hepburn is a nostalgic way to spend the day.