It Happened At Chez Jay / 10 Tables, 12 Barstools / Home

Jon Stebbins personal archives © 2000
Jon and Jay at the book launch party for
Dennis Wilson, The Real Beach Boy, April 16, 2000

It Happened At Chez Jay

"To those who insist on recognizing the obvious it may look like a decaying 50's dive. But it always has. "Why mess with perfection?" is the reason given by 75-year young owner Jay Fiondella. His formula of serving gourmet food, stiff drinks, and maintaining a celebrity friendly atmosphere (no cameras, no autographs) has been working like a dream for 44 years and counting. Over the years everyone from Frank to Cher to Madonna has been a Chez Jay's customer. This may be the single greatest surviving original showbiz beach joint on the planet.

How many places can claim visits from both Judy Garland and Drew Barrymore? Jim Morrison and Julia Roberts? Peter Sellers and Joe DiMaggio? The Weather Underground and the Manson Family? Henry, Jane, Peter, and Bridget Fonda? Lenny Bruce and Bruce Springsteen? Lana Turner and Michelle Pfeifer? Henry Kissinger and Ed Keinholz? Diana Ross and Diana Dors? Natalie Wood and Ed Wood? It's been a surreal stream of personalities and cultural symbols intermingling in a tiny dark space near a big ocean for over four decades. I doubt if any four walls have witnessed the popular culture diversity that has passed through the Chez Jay's porthole. It's all celebrated there daily in an invigorating sea blasted atmosphere seasoned with nostalgic stardust and chased with a shot of bourbon.

You name it...it happened at Chez Jay's."
Jon Stebbins © 2003
Photos © lovendaisies (cad) 2002