A 1914 Japanese-inspired palace above Hollywood Hills where the owner's ashes are buried in the garden — and his ghost still walks in his cowboy hat
1999 N Sycamore Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90068
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Restaurant dining; prices reflect a fine-dining hilltop venue
Access
Wheelchair OK
Hilltop restaurant accessible by car; steep driveway
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1914 · Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument · National Register of Historic Places (Yamashiro Historic District) · One of Los Angeles's oldest continuously operating upscale restaurants
The Bernheimer brothers were German immigrants who made their fortune in New York's garment industry before relocating to Los Angeles in 1911. They commissioned the main house from architect Franklin M. Small, with local architect Walter Webber supervising construction, completing it in 1914. The estate was designed as a showcase for the art treasures they had acquired through decades of travel — silks, lacquerwork, sculpture — and the grounds were styled after Japanese palace gardens.
The brothers only occupied it for about a decade. Eugene Bernheimer died in the mid-1920s, and Adolph sold the property. Through the Depression and World War II years the building cycled through uses: an exclusive club for Hollywood producers and directors, a boys' military school, and a period as a brothel.
In 1948, Thomas O. Glover purchased the estate intending to demolish it. Beginning renovations, he discovered that the ornate original woodwork and silk wallpaper had simply been painted and plywood-covered rather than destroyed. Glover preserved the structure and opened a cocktail lounge, eventually expanding into full dining service. His son Thomas Y. Glover is credited with launching the restaurant proper in the early 1960s, starting with four tables.
Today Yamashiro sits 250 feet above Hollywood Boulevard, offering views of the Los Angeles basin. Thomas O. Glover's ashes, along with those of his wife, are interred in the northeast corner of the garden courtyard — a detail the restaurant acknowledges publicly.
Sources
Thomas O. Glover was, by all accounts, inseparable from his cowboy hat. Staff who knew him in life and staff who arrived long after his death have both described seeing a man in a cowboy hat in the garden, particularly in the northeast corner near where his ashes are buried. The descriptions are consistent enough that current management identifies the figure as Glover.
The bridal room on the second floor is associated with a different account: a manager heard loud crying from the room one evening, found it empty, retrieved a security guard who also heard the crying, and both left without explanation. When they reached the exterior and looked up, the light in the room had turned itself back on. The figure is sometimes described as a weeping woman, theorized to be connected to the building's period as a brothel in the 1930s.
A phantom bartender has been reported separately — a figure seen near or behind the bar that employees have described as a solidly present man who then simply isn't there. Plates have been reported flying off shelves in the kitchen. Staff describe seeing silhouettes walk into walls.
The restaurant's paranormal reputation is established enough that the LA Ghost Tour uses it as a regular stop. The Bernheimer brothers' original garden — still substantially intact after more than a century — grounds all of these accounts in a specific, walkable geography: the northeast corner of the courtyard, the upstairs windows, the service corridors.
Notable Entities
The restaurant operates in the historic 1914 main house and terraced grounds of the Bernheimer brothers' estate. Dining happens in rooms where Thomas O. Glover's cowboy-hat-clad spirit is most often reported, and the garden where his ashes are interred is visible from the terrace. Open daily for dinner starting at 5 PM; Sunday brunch from 11 AM.
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West Hollywood, CA
The building opened on New Year's Eve 1935 as Club Seville, a Hollywood nightclub with a crystal dance floor. By 1940 it had become Ciro's, operated by William Wilkerson, which ran until 1957 as one of the Sunset Strip's premier celebrity venues. Gangster Mickey Cohen was among its most notorious regulars, conducting business from the building. Mitzi Shore purchased the property in 1976 and built the Comedy Store into its current form.
Venice, CA
Italian immigrant Cesar Menotti opened the bar at 52 Windward Ave in Venice in 1915, and his original tile signage still marks the entrance. When Prohibition began in 1920, Menotti disguised the street-level operation as a grocery store while running an active speakeasy in the basement, supplied by rum runners who used a network of tunnels connecting to a pier three miles offshore. Frank and Annie Bennett took over operation in 1966; Frank became a fixture at the bar until his death in 2003.
Hollywood, CA
French immigrant Firmin Toulet opened Frank's François Café at 6669 Hollywood Boulevard in 1919. In 1923, Joseph Musso joined as partner, the name changed, and the restaurant expanded to 6667 Hollywood in 1936. The Mosso family acquired full ownership and has operated the restaurant continuously since. In 2019, it became the first restaurant to receive a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.