The Ivy is a restaurant which is popular with celebrities, people from the arts and media and theatregoers. It is situated in West Street, near Cambridge Circus in London and opposite the Ambassadors and St Martin's theatres.
History
The original restaurant was opened by Abel Giandellini in 1917 as an unlicensed Italian cafe in a building on the same site. Legend has it that the name itself originated from a chance remark by the actress Alice Delysia, who overheard Giandellini apologise to a customer for the inconvenience caused by building works. When he said that it was because of his intention to create a restaurant of the highest class, she interjected "Don't worry – we will always come and see you. 'We will cling together like the ivy'", a line from a then-popular song. The restaurant expanded into the current premises in 1929 run by Giandellini, with his longstanding Maitre d' Mario Gallati as host .
In part due to its proximity to the West End theatres, exclusivity and late closing time (it is still open until close to midnight), the restaurant quickly became a theatrical institution, with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, John Gielgud, Lilian Braithwaite, Terence Rattigan, Binkie Beaumont and Noël Coward being habitués, having their regular 2-seater tables along the walls. According to the actor Donald Sinden in his Sky Arts television documentary series Great West End Theatres, The Ivy became so famous as a theatrical-celebrities haunt that in the 1943 revue Sweet and Low which ran for almost six years at the neighbouring Ambassadors Theatre, there was a satirical sketch included, updated regularly, entitled Poison Ivy, where the show's star Hermione Gingold "would exchange wicked and salacious celebrity gossip".
The Ivy is a restaurant on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles known for celebrity sightings and papparazzi. It serves nouvelle American cuisine "in a prettily decorated series of country-cottage rooms, with a flowery outdoor terrace" close to International Creative Management whose employees and clients can often be found eating at the celebrated restaurant.
Celeb hotspot
The area around The Ivy on Robertson Boulevard is crowded with boutiques, paparazzi shooting for Us Weekly, In Touch or Life & Style, and tourists with "the largest herd of bulb flashers... found directly across the street from The Ivy, where stars and stargazers alike dine". An MSNBC article called The Ivy "a celebrity beehive that sees a constant stream of Hummers, Mercedes and Jaguars pull up and discharge folks who pay through the nose to be seen eating in public".
Notable patrons
English actor Patrick Stewart said he likes to go to The Ivy Restaurant because it is open late and "you can sit over a last glass of wine without having people piling chairs on the tables round you" in a 1994 interview. Lil' Kim and her "raucous entourage", "kept the Sidecars flowing till closing at the tony Robertson Boulevard restaurant" while she was in Los Angeles working on her third solo album, according to an 2002 LA Times story.Paris Hilton's brother Barron Hilton II held a birthday "bash" at The Ivy in 2004.
The Ivy League are an English vocal trio, created in 1964, who enjoyed two Top 10 hit singles in the UK Singles Chart in 1965. The group's sound was characterised by rich, three-part vocal harmonies.
Career
The Ivy League was formed in August 1964 by three session singers with an extensive vocal range, John Carter, Ken Lewis (both previous members of Carter-Lewis and the Southerners) plus Perry Ford. They were first heard doing background vocals for The Who on their hit single "I Can't Explain" in November 1964 but, after that, the Who's producers entrusted John Entwistle and Pete Townshend with the backing vocals. Their debut single, "What More Do You Want" generated little interest but the second release, "Funny How Love Can Be" made the UK chart's Top 10. Further hits followed, including "That's Why I'm Crying" and UK chart No.3 "Tossing and Turning" (not to be confused with similarly named hit of Bobby Lewis. The original trio released just one album, 1965's This is the Ivy League – panned in the music press as disappointing, with its excessively wide spread of musical styles and material– before both Carter and Lewis left the group. Carter departed in January 1966, with Lewis leaving about one year later. The duo then set up a production company called Sunny Records.
Ivy League can refer to: