Hollywood Icon The Palm Loses Famous Celebrity Portraits

The Hollywood location of The Palm Restaurant — a mainstay Santa Monica Boulevard since 1976 —will be moving to Beverly Hills on September 30. Although the menu and star-studded patrons will likely make a smooth transition, one aspect of the restaurant will be lost: the infamous celebrity portraits and cartoons on the walls. A tradition that began in 1926 when artists could pay for a meal at the original Palm location in New York with a drawing on the wall, each Palm restaurant is dotted with cartoons and artists' renditions of celebrities.

At the Hollywood Palm location are cartoons of Farrah Fawcett, Leonardo DiCaprio, Paris Hilton, Ben Stiller, Christian Slater James Garner, and O.J. Simpson's face superimposed on The Simpsons' cartoon bodies. Unfortunately, the walls aren't moving with the restaurant, but Alison Martino — the daughter of late singer Al Martino, whose portrait is at The Palm — has started a project to reunite the portraits with their real-life counterparts.

Some of the portraits will also be removed from the plaster and added to the Beverly Hills location, but the new location will not be crowded with portraits, instead inviting a "1970s California look" that pays homage to iconic Los Angeles locations instead of people.

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Joanna Fantozzi is an Associate Editor with The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter@JoannaFantozzi