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The dining room from the front: two crystal chandeliers, Italian flags on the brick walls, tables laid in white down both sides to the open kitchen

From the Family

Why Dinner With Music Is Better (and Why Italians Already Knew That)

In Italy, dinner is not something you rush through before the real night starts. Dinner is the night. It starts around eight, it goes slowly, and nobody looks at their phone to check the time. There is wine, there is talking, and there is almost always music.

We wanted that feeling at The Goodfellas. A place where you sit down and stay.

Music changes how a meal feels

Think about the best dinners you have had. Most of them probably were not silent. Music fills the quiet moments, so a first date feels less awkward. It gives a table of friends a reason to get louder. It makes a Tuesday feel like a Saturday.

Lanterns and framed black-and-white portraits along the brick wall, above tables set with crystal glasses and brass lamps

There is a reason the great Italian American songs, from Dean Martin to Louis Prima, were made for dinner and dancing. The music and the food were always part of the same evening.

Good for couples

When you share food, you slow down. You pass the plate, you try a bite of theirs, you argue over the last slice. Add a bottle of wine and some music in the background and the conversation goes places it would not go over a quick lunch.

If you are planning a date, order a few things to share instead of one plate each. Start with burrata and bruschette, split a pizza, then finish with one tiramisù and two spoons.

Tables with brass lamps by the lit wine wall, a lantern and framed portraits on the brick, an Italian flag above

Good for friends and family

Italian food was made for the middle of the table. Order a salumi board, a few calzoni and two or three pizzas, and let everyone take what they want. It is the easiest way to feed a group, and it keeps everyone talking instead of waiting for their own plate.

Our dining room is built for this. Every table has a name, from the Corleone to the Soprano, so when you book for a group you are not just getting a table. You are getting a story to go with it.

The Bonanno Table: a gold plaque on the wainscot under a framed collage of old mafia headlines and a pizza, lit by a lantern

A real night out, not just a meal

We are open late, so there is no rush. Come for dinner, order a second bottle, stay for dessert and an espresso. Have an Italian Sunset Spritz at the bar before you sit down. The kitchen stays open until midnight early in the week and until 1 AM Thursday to Sunday, with pizza until 2 AM.

Good food, good wine, good music and the people you like most. That is the whole idea. See you at 1917 Hollywood Blvd.

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