Larry Lipson wrote up restaurants for the Daily News starting in 1958. From his exit column:

Sure, there have been editors who have leaned somewhat heavily on me - especially during one period when I was the only restaurant critic/writer in America featured in a newspaper seven days a week....

Back then, in 1958, restaurants operated differently. They were mostly host-driven, which meant that the owner-host was in the limelight. Who could remember the name of the chefs at (Alex) Perino's and (Ken Hansen's) Scandia? Wolfgang Puck changed all that.

After he left the host-driven Ma Maison, where Patrick Terrail ruled the roost, and opened Spago with then-wife-to-be Barbara Lazaroff, L.A. became a chefs' town.

And with Puck, Joachim Splichal (Patina, Pinot Bistro and various Pinots), Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton (Campanile), Michael McCarty (Michael's) and Michel Richard (Citrus) at the celebrity chef-owner helm, it was adieu to hosts such as Wally Branch (Oyster House), Stephen Crane (Luau and Stefanino's), Shelton McHenry (Tail o' the Cock, Bantam Cock), Nicky Blair (Nicky Blair's) and Bob Hall (Wild Goose).

The website Los Angeles Time Machines has a lot on the old restaurants.