Venue Information

Cafe Largo was founded by Jean-Pierre Boccara in 1989. Boccara had previously run the Lhasa Club in Hollywood from 1982 to 1988. The location of Cafe Largo was formerly known as Budapest, a Hungarian restaurant. Boccara chose the name Largo for its musical, expansive and adventurous connotation. While changing the menu to a more contemporary Italo-French fare and strongly supported by the local arts community Boccara turned the place into a focal point for live music (Peter Himmelman, Victoria Williams, Suzanne Vega, Syd Straw, The Love Jones, Julie Christensen, Hugo Largo, Grant Lee Buffalo...), cabaret (Philip Littell, Stephanie Vlahos, Lypsinka, Barry Yourgrau...), vaudeville (Les Stevens), comedy (Nora Dunn, Beth Lapides..) and spoken word (Tommy Cody, Eve Brandstein and Michael Lally's "Poetry in Motion" notorious series).

The LA Weekly named Cafe Largo "LA's Best Supper Club" in 1990. The New York Times ran a substantive review " A Place for Poetry in Land of Pictures" ...