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Seeing Stars: Restaurants Owned by the Stars..

(at the Century City Shopping Center)
10250 Santa Monica
Boulevard,
Century City (Los Angeles), CA. / (310) 788-DIVE
Sad news: In
January of 1999, Dive! closed abruptly. The Century City Dive! has permanently
sunk.
The "yellow
submarine" exterior of the restaurant remained intact for over a year,
but in June 2000, the old sub facade was taken down, and the building is
now being retrofitted to accomodate a more traditional restaurant.
L.A. has lost one
of its most whimsical examples of eccentric architecture.
I will leave
this page up for a while, for people who would like to read about what
the restaurant was like...
(Another
branch of Dive!, in Las Vegas, Nevada, has also closed.)
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.JPG) This
place is a real dive. No, not that kind of dive... it's "DIVE!,"
the submarine command to submerge.
And believe it or not, this celebrity restaurant does just that, about
once every half hour.
This
unique restaurant in Century City
is yet another product of the colorful imagination of director Steven
Spielberg. First he gave us "Jaws,"
"E.T.," and "Jurassic Park," and now
he has given us a restaurant shaped like a submarine.
Spielberg's fascination
with underwater adventures began when read "20,000 Leagues Under
the Sea" as a child. His recent TV show, "SeaQuest DSV."
centered around a futuristic submarine, so it's no surprise that Dive!
is made to resemble a giant sub. Not just any sub, mind you, but a quirky,
neon-yellow submarine that looks as if it just escaped from a Beatles'
cartoon. The
side entrance to the USS Dive is a giant, open hatch. The round porthole
windows are filled with water and trails of bubbles. And there's even a
mammoth olive on top of the conning tower.
Inside,
the decor resembles something you might find at a Disneyland
theme restaurant: a maze of metal catwalks, exposed conduits, pressure
gauges, throttles, control panels, sonar screens, and artfully-placed video
screens filled with images of fish and blue underwater scenes. (That isn't
too surprising, since another partner in the restaurant is former-Disney
wunderkind & current Dreamworks ally, Jeffrey
Katzenberg.)
Four working periscopes
allow guests to zoom and pan in on the action outside in the shopping center
(or spy on their fellow diners). The seats at the bar resemble torpedoes
topped with round targets. Upstairs, a fleet of model ships and subs circle
the ceiling.
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People
magazine reports that both the Fonz (Henry
Winkler)and 007 (Pierce
Brosnan) are becoming regulars, and that
other celebs who have dined at Dive! include Tom Hanks,
Rob Reiner,
Candice Bergen,
Warren Beatty,
the Olsen Twins
and Michael Keaton.
Rumor has it that Spielberg decided to build the restaurant because he
could find a single submarine sandwich in Los Angeles which measured up
to his childhood memories.
Spielberg's ads read:
"Deep. See. Experience." Once every half hour or so, the
restaurant... submerges. Well, sort of. Sirens blare, red lights
flash and commands of "Dive!"
echo about the room, as the giant video screens fill with bubbles. They
have an oddball sense of humor here. As the "dive" ends, the
Captain's voice asks what can be seen from the periscope. The music
then resumes with a song such as "I Can See Clearly Now"
or "I See a Bad Moon Rising"...
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There's a happy, party
atmosphere here at Dive!, and the noise level is high, especially on weekend
nights, when the place is packed with young faces. The slick, lengthy menu
lists dozens of (what else?) exotic submarine sandwiches, from the
traditional Italian sub to the unconventional (e.g. a soft shell crab sub,
a fajitas sub or a Chinese chicken salad sub). Prices for the sandwiches
range from $7.95 to $12.95. There are lots of salads, a few entrees for
heartier appetites (roast chicken, ribs), and a lengthy parade of desserts.
They also like puns
here: the menu headings include "Sub-Sides," "Sub-stantial
Salads," and "Sub-Lime Desserts."
Portions are large:
most of the submarine sandwiches can easily be shared by two, and the desserts
are humongous. Be warned that although the prices seem low at first glance,
the bill can add up quickly if you're not careful, since almost all appetizers,
desserts and side dishes are $5.00. Alas, the food itself doesn't quite
measure up to all the hype - it's fairly predictable stuff, for the most
part.
(Recently, the restaurant
departed from its submarine sandwich-heavy menu (due to a decline in repeat
business) and added a wider range of food items, including pizza, pasta
and seafood. Subs now make up just 20% of the menu.)
In the tradition of The Hard Rock Cafe
and Planet Hollywood, you
can also buy a wide range of Dive! souvenirs, including T-shirts, baseball
caps, denim vests, boxer shorts, key chains, even a diver's watch. Your
server can ring these items up for you, and bring them directly to your
table. You can even buy the menu for $5. Or a leather jacket for $580.
The 300-seat restaurant
opened in May of 1994, in the Marketplace food court of the Century
City Shopping Center - right next door to the Stage Deli, and across
from the AMC Century 14 multiplex
theatres, so you might be able to watch a Spielberg
movie before dining at a Spielberg restaurant!
This is expected to be the first of many such Dives! around the U.S. (they
have already opened a new Dive restaurant in Las Vegas.)
Getting
there: From Rodeo Drive, take Santa Monica
Boulevard southwest (about a mile and a quarter) to the Century City Shopping
Center. Look for the bright yellow submarine on the left (south) side of
the street.
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