Michael Kors Takes Over Canter’s Deli Serving Spago Food to Olivia Wilde, Mindy Kaling and More Celebs
“It’s all about high and low,” exclaimed Michael Kors. “It always has been. Isn’t that what fashion’s all about?”
Tucked into a leather-lined booth in an elegant dining room replete with ivory flowers, passed trays of rosé champagne, spicy tuna cones and caviar handed out by handsome tux-ed waiters, he peered out into the softly lit, glorious sea of ladies during cocktail hour — many boldface names — decked out in his classic slinky black and gold jersey numbers — and chuckled: “Nobody would believe we’re in Canters!”
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That’s right: Canter’s Deli on Fairfax, the old school almost hundred-year-old hangout for neighborhood regulars by day, and late-night post-club hipsters by night. Known for bagels, pastrami sandwiches, fat fries and Dr. Brown’s soda, not for being a celebrity hotspot.
Excuse me?
“Spago and Canters! That’s all you need to know!” laughed Kors. “I started a trend! But I love the idea of taking two iconic L.A. spots: Spago and Canter’s — and doing a mashup. We’ve got Spago food and Canter’s cool. What better? Wolfgang [Puck] laughed when I called him! But L.A.’s so all about high and low: nobody dresses for day, everyone’s dressed up at night. So this is perfect.”
This unique hybrid party celebrated the brand’s new sleek Michael Kors boutique at Two Rodeo, down the street from his 20-year location further north, which closed during the pandemic. “I remember opening in Beverly Hills 20 years ago,” Kors sighed. “[Famed retailer] Fred Hayman came down the block with his dog to welcome me. But times changed — shopping streets are alive — they shift, all over the world. The hot Rodeo shopping spot has slipped down closer to Wilshire. Now what’s so cool about Rodeo is it’s got the whole tourist dream vibe, contrasted with the way many Angelenos shop at home. Our new store is basically a showroom — my team takes racks to customer’s homes — that’s the way it’s done now. So the store holds the crème de la crème of the collection.”
His New York and Los Angels teams did all the VIP fittings for the famous faces attired in Kors for the dinner. “I don’t do fittings,” Kors laughed. “After the Met Ball, I’m done.” Amid the guests, Olivia Wilde was casually cool in a freewheeling Kors tank top and leather pants. Marisa Tomei donned a classic Kors black suit and striped silk shirt. Mindy Kaling was chic in a fall 2024 sequin cocktail dress. “I got fall!” Kaling cooed.
Most of the guests wore Spring-Summer 2024 looks, like Zoey Deutch in a perky black shorts suit to go with a perky new platinum pixie cut, Quinta Brunson in a long print high waist dress, and Kerry Washington blew everyone away in a Fall 2024 black-and-gold lace and sequin look. Shailene Woodley also stood out in the black-clad crowd, sporty in a camel double-breasted belted pantsuit.
“The real reality of my clothes is — everyone looks good,” said Kors. “That’s the point. Everyone asks me what women here want — I say, ‘L.A. women want everything.’ They want to look glam, but not ridiculous. Sexy, but not obnoxious. I remember years ago when I did my first L.A. trunk show, a woman told me, ‘If I can’t wear it with jeans, I don’t want it!’ That was the best thing I ever heard.”
At the dinner, Molly Sims paired her Kors black suit and bold gold earrings with a red lip. “With Kors, all you need is great skin and a little lip,” she told The Hollywood Reporter with a laugh, hugging her old friend for whom she walked the New York runway so many times. “That’s why I started my skincare line [YSE Beauty] a year ago. It’s made all the difference — and it’s just started to take off.”
“You’re crushing it,” replied Kors. “But you always have.”
Mother-and-daughter team Kathy and Nicki Hilton dressed almost opposite: Nicki in a long black Kors gown with a heavy gold chain belt and jewelry — Kathy in a tan-and-white floral cotton dress. “In Kors, you never look overdone and your bod looks great,” said Kathy. “It doesn’t matter which piece you wear.” The pair have teamed up on a new project: “Ruggables!” Kathy exclaimed. “I’m showing them at my house tomorrow — washable rugs! And they’re gorgeous!”
The appetizers just hinted at the true hybrid: the food. While guests snacked on Wolfgang Puck’s smoked salmon pizza and tiny bites, a few trays carried mini cups of matzoh ball soup. “Is this Spago or Canter?” laughed the waiter holding it. “Only your hairdresser knows for sure.”
Half the room was famed actresses and models; the other was stylists: Taylor Swift stylist Joseph Cassell Falconer; Tara Swennen (“I’ve dressed Kristen Stewart in Kors many times”), Elizabeth Stewart (in a vintage red Kors jumpsuit from the eighties, which the designer wanted to tear off her “for my archives!”); Petra Flannery, still in the afterglow of longtime client Emma Stone’s second Oscar; and Jessica Paster, with client Quinta Brunson. “They gave me a dress to wear,” said Paster of the Kors team. “But I wanted to wear this fuchsia pantsuit instead. Needed to be comfortable. I got it for Aubrey [Plaza] to wear to present the women’s basketball team at the Paris Olympics. I guess I’ll have to find her something else.”
On one of the first warm nights this spring, white dresses also started to make an appearance — as did the season’s clearly hottest bag: the baby Hermès Kelly. Kathy Hilton’s was shiny white, while stylist Jason Bolden was carrying an even smaller two-tone model. “Everyone keeps grabbing it,” he exclaimed. “They say they want to ‘borrow it’ — I’m not having it!”
Longtime Manhattan magazine stylist/editor Paul Cavaco was a surprise guest. “I just moved to L.A. because my whole family’s here,” he sighed. Asked if he liked it, the quintessential New Yorker replied, “Not really.” Spoken like a true jaded New York fashion person.
Inside the dining room, three ultra-long tables were festooned with white flowers, more Spago than Canter’s. So was the formal menu: light green salad, exquisite chicken and halibut entrees, and different wines for each course.
But all cuisine hell broke loose when one guest, a New York gentleman in a tux, ordered a classic pastrami on rye with mustard. Suddenly, all these svelte black-clad ladies were ordering their own en masse — with fat fries and pickles, to boot. “Would you like a Canter’s menu?” a Spago maitre ‘d wisely asked. Out came the Kosher pickles and the Dr. Brown’s black cherry sodas. “Pickles are the Jewish gateway food,” warned the well-dressed gent who started it all. “After them, it’s a slippery slope.” By the time the gourmand entrées came out, many guests were already full.
But that didn’t stop most from later heading to Canter’s famed Kibbutz Room, a little sliver of a backroom that’s often used for music or private parties. DJ Kitty Ca$h moved aside her equipment to make room for a mega-long table festooned with desserts: chocolate chip cookies, macarons, financier cookies, cakes of all ilk, cheesecake, berries and Canter’s classic black-and-white cookies, emblazoned with the designer’s initials “MK” in icing. The cookies were also slipped into gift bags that included oversized Michael Kors aviators, perfect for ladies and gents.
Post-dinner, Kaitlyn Dever and Deutch danced a deux in a corner, while Tomei jumped up and down to Kitty Cas$h’s upbeat tunes. But the best time of all was had by Wilde, stuffing as many oversized chocolate chip cookies into her tiny Kors evening bag as she could. “I have absolutely no shame about what I’m doing!” she said to no one in particular.
It was that kind of night.
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