After eight seasons of travel in the world for his Netflix series “Somebody Feed Phil”, the next food adventure of Phil Rosenthal kept him much closer to his home. The 65 -year -old producer opens a neighborhood square in Los Angeles called Max and Helen’s.
“It’s a hundred years old district,” said Rosenthal. “I want it to look like a hundred years dinner and he has been there for a hundred years.”
The dinner, which would operate later this month in Larchmont, bears the name of the end of Rosenthal’s parents, who were regulars of his travel show and characters inspired by “Everybody Loves Raymond”, the sitcom CBS he created almost 30 years ago.
The menu will rely on comforting food: powdered donut holes, sourdough waffles with maple butter and soft eggs, a wink to the favorite dish of his father.
“My father loved soft eggs so much on his tombstone, he says:” My eggs are soft? “” Said Rosenthal. “The lesson for me is that if you can find a simple joy in your life, you may be happy every day.”
Rosenthal grew up speaking of the absence of his father.
“I become a little emotional that he cannot be here for this perfect interpretation of the thing he liked the most,” he said.
Build the world of “Everyone loves Raymond”
Simplicity, said Rosenthal, has always been the key to his work. “Everyone loves Raymond” ran for nine years by avoiding topical humor.
“You don’t make Bill Clinton jokes in the 90s,” he said. “You do things that seem to be eternal.”
After having struggled to find a follow -up of the sitcom, Rosenthal launched his Netflix program with a line: “I’m exactly like Anthony Bourdain if he was afraid of everything.” The series of food and travel has become a surprise blow, even by attracting closed windows when Rosenthal spoke about it on tour. “Ray (Romano) was released on stage with me and could not believe the size of the crowd,” he said.
Rosenthal enlisted the acclaimed chief Nancy Silverton as executive chief, while his future royal mason will lead the kitchen. Beyond food, he hopes that the restaurant will anchor his neighborhood.
“The guests disappear from America,” he said. “These become communities centers…. If the center of the community disappears, perhaps you lose the meaning of the community and you may lose the country. So I will repair everything with my restaurant.”
His production company is called Lucky Bastards, a label that always adapts because he finds a new joy in simple pleasures and new projects at 65 years old.
But Rosenthal rejected any retirement suggestion.
“I could. It’s not fun,” he said. “If you think you have something to say or a point to do or a point to do or your work has an impact on a guy or a small child, who wants to stop?”
