Visit the restaurant whose big bang sparked a culinary universe

It’s not just that Spago, which opened in 1982 on the Sunset Strip and moved to Beverly Hills in 1997, blazed a brilliant new path for California cooking with chi-chi, radical pizzas and commitment to fresh, local ingredients. It’s that chef Wolfgang Puck did it all with such flair that he became as popular as many of his high-powered Hollywood guests, launching the concept of the modern-day celebrity chef and creating a glittering sphere of comfort for the rich and famous. Spago remains perhaps the only place where old glamour (Tony Curtis, Zsa Zsa Gabor) as well as current celebs (Courtney Cox, Kim Kardashian) have dined. As for the rest of us, dining there is as much about the experience as it is the food—although the cooking is every bit as scintillating as the stars.