Café Largo was founded by
Jean-Pierre Boccara, a nightclub entrepreneur, in 1989. Café Largo featured music (including performances by
Peter Himmelman,
Colin Hay,
Victoria Williams,
Suzanne Vega,
Syd Straw,
The Love Jones,
Julie Christensen,
Hugo Largo,
Grant Lee Buffalo,
Fiona Apple), cabaret (including performances by Philip Littell, Stephanie Vlahos,
Lypsinka, Barry Yourgrau), vaudeville (Les Stevens), comedy (
Nora Dunn,
Beth Lapides), and spoken word (Tommy Cody, Eve Brandstein,
Michael Lally). The
LA Weekly named Café Largo "LA's Best Supper Club" in 1990.
The New York Times ran a substantive review "A Place for Poetry in Land of Pictures" on July 12, 1989. Several reviews were published in
Newsweek,
LA Style,
LA Times,
Los Angeles,
Buzz,
Exposure,
Movieline,
The Edge,
Details,
Village View,
Vogue,
Interview,
Playboy, and
US Magazine. In March 1992, Boccara sold the club to Mark Flanagan and his wife Aimee Cain (international model and of
Star Search fame). Flanagan shortened the name to Largo, and his name to simply "Flanagan." Fergus O'Flynn and Joanne McKenna, along with Flanagan, were equal shareholders. Boccara went on to open LunaPark on Robertson Blvd. in West Hollywood and operated it from Halloween 1993 to Halloween 2000. Flanagan began operating Largo in April 1992. (In the 1960s, the Largo, owned by Chuck Landis, was a strip club on Sunset Blvd.) In 1996, Flanagan re-established Largo as an intimate cabaret with live music, mainly in the
piano bar tradition. Largo's original location on Fairfax Avenue had 100 seats, with a maximum full capacity of 130, and regularly sold out, with frequent sightings of celebrity musicians and actors in the audience. The club had a strict no talking or cellphone use policy during performances, but allowed audience members to live-blog on their laptops. Flanagan persuaded
Jon Brion to take a regular Friday-night residence at Largo. Brion's contacts brought other singer-songwriters to perform at the club, including
Aimee Mann,
Michael Penn, Steve Brandano,
Fiona Apple (who included a song expressing her love for the club, "Largo," on
her fourth album), and
Elliott Smith. Over the years, the list of semi-regular performers at the club has included
Neil Finn,
E of
the Eels,
Robyn Hitchcock,
John Doe,
Ben Folds,
Grant-Lee Phillips,
Rickie Lee Jones,
Rufus Wainwright,
Jakob Dylan,
Teddy Thompson,
t.A.T.u.,
Brad Mehldau, and
Colin Hay. ==Performances==