Post #585980 by JOHN-O on Thu, Apr 21, 2011 5:33 PM

Yup, Pieces of Eight and manly man Paul Page are gone but we still have great places like Chez Jay to enjoy.

It was started by another mid-century man's man (and world adventurer), Jay Fiondella.

Here's a poem written to the place by poet W.E. Hogue...

**It was next to the Santa Monica Rand think tank.
Brilliant minds who plotted against the communists, to be frank.

It also attracted many Hollywood stars
Who made it one of their favorite bars.

I once got drunk there with actor Lee Marvin
And a comely woman named Carmen.

Also took there Howard Hughes' last love, the lovely Yvonne.
A beautiful creature from some heavenly salon.

I was introduced to the place by David Sheehan of Hollywood Close-Ups fame.
Whose column in The Outlook was one of the reasons everyone came.

Like Santa Monica college friend Doug McClure,
Co-star of the Virginian. A handsome dud that's for sure.

Jay's had a nautical motif.
A diver's helmet with a skill for comic relief.

Peanuts on the tables, peanut shells on the floor.
Thrown there by beer drinkers hoping to score.

Oh, the celebrities: Paris' grandpa, Barren Hilton,
Henry Kissinger, his spectacles tiltin',

Warren Beatty practicing his Shampoo role
In the secret room the other side of the toilet bowl.

Astronaut, Alan Shepard hung out there.
Ate the peanuts with abandoned care.

When he made the golf shot on the moon,
In his pocket was a peanut from Jay's, resting as in a cocoon.

There are many famous restauranteurs from this time.
Toots Shore's with Jackie Gleason standing in line.

Lou Walters' the Latin Quarter,
Barbara's dad's place this side of the border.

Famous restaurants such as the Brown Derby, Romanoff's and Ciros
Many more who are number one in front of many zeros.

Jay Fiondella and Chez Jay's is up there, too.
But he had one thing the others didn't. Here's a clue

That makes real star gazers want to swoon.
Chez Jay's had Astro-Nut, the peanut that went to the moon.**