The Formosa Café, 7156 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, California 90046

The Formosa Café, has been (and continues to be) a popular hangout for nearly every movie star in Hollywood as evidenced by the sign that hangs over the bar which reads: "Where the Stars Dine.”

The restaurant’s walls are lined with over 250 black and white photos of celebrities who frequented the establishment in the past and present and over the years, the likes of James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Jack Benny, and Grace Kelly have all either rubbed elbows at the bar or slid into one of the Formosa's cushy red leather booths to enjoy the yummy Asian cuisine.

The café has been featured in several motion pictures. In the 1997 film noir, L.A. Confidential, you' may recognize The Formosa as the dark restaurant where a detective mistakes the real Lana Turner for a hooker. In reality, Lana Turner and her gangster boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato were regulars back in the 50s before Lana's daughter stabbed Stompanato to death in self-defense. Johnny's associates in crime, gangsters Mickey Cohen and Bugsy Siegel were also café regulars.

In the 1920s, the building was used as a production office for the historic Warner Hollywood Studios which is just across the street. In 1939, an enterprising man by the name of Lem Quon, along with his partner, Jim Bernstein transformed the property into The Formosa Café. Bernstein was a friend of mobster Mickey Cohen who ran a bookie operation out of the restaurant, and to this day you can see Cohen's floor safe next to one of the booths. The trendy eatery/bar has been run by Quon's family all these years and Vince Jung, Quon's grandson is the current owner.

Vince has worked at the restaurant most of his life and took over the helm shortly after his grandfather Lem passed away. As a child, Vince used to come in after school and do his homework in one of the back booths and has met many celebrities over the years. “I was just a kid when I met John Wayne,” Vince recalls. “He was a mammoth of a man.”

According to legend, Wayne, who was a Formosa regular, once passed out in his favorite booth after a hard night of drinking. At closing time, the bartender called Vince's dad who then ran the place to find out whether or not he should try and wake the sleeping giant. Mr. Jung said, “I've got to open up tomorrow at 7:00 AM anyway, so go ahead a let him sleep it off.”

Apparently Wayne felt very much at home at The Formosa because when Mr. Jung showed up the next morning to open up, the first thing he heard was Wayne calling out to him from the kitchen asking how he'd like his eggs.

Today, The Formosa continues to be a popular industry watering hole, especially after dark. To the naked eye, not much about the place has changed since 1939 and Vince likes to say that The Formosa is Hollywood's version of Cheers. “Most of the people who come here are regulars,” says Vince, “but we also get our fair share of celebrities. Not long ago I came downstairs and there was James Gandolfini, Pamela Anderson and Sasha Baron Cohen sitting at the bar with their own groups of friends, all on the same night.”

While there haven't been any reported sightings of any celebrity ghosts at the restaurant, its former owner and several other ghostly patrons from the past still drop by from time to time to clandestinely mingle with the likes of Bono, Michael Douglas, and Christian Slater. Although Vince himself has not witnessed anything paranormal, he's constantly hearing stories from his employees who have.

Juan Aviles, who has worked at The Formosa for eight years says most of the restaurants spirit's aren't particularly scary, although the shadows he frequently sees do sometimes do make him a little nervous. It is his theory that the more jittery they make him, the stronger they seem to get and they seem to feed off his fright. His way of dealing with it is by asking them not to scare him but every so often they still do.

“I was in the kitchen by myself one day when someone called out my name.” Aviles recalls. “I thought it might have been my boss, but when I went to check, there was nobody there. This has happened three times so far.” Another time he was closing up and was just about to leave the building when he heard what sounded like someone grabbing a bunch of silverware and jingling it around. “I've been here long enough to recognize the normal sounds of this place, and that wasn't normal. Whoever it was wanted to get my attention, and did.”

Chef Owen Timoteo has been the cook at The Formosa for about six months. He claims that when used to work alone on the weekends he'd hear strange noises, hear voices and see white shadows go past him which at first, he dismissed as nothing. It wasn't until he and another cook were in the kitchen and saw a pot on the stove lift itself up and then set itself back down a few inches away that he finally convinced himself that the restaurant was indeed haunted.

“I've had several other experiences since that one,” he says. “One day I walked out into the bar area and was looking into the mirror over the bar and I saw someone sitting in one of the booths, but when I turned around to see who it was, there was nobody there.”

Not long after that, he was in the kitchen and heard what sounded like someone dropping something heavy on one of the tables in the other room. Thinking it might be Vince bringing in a bag of groceries, he called out, but nobody answered so he called Vince on the phone to see if he might be upstairs in the office. He was dismayed to find out that Vince was at home and nobody else was in the restaurant. “That was the last time I ever worked alone here,” says Owen. “I don't want to see or hear anything like that again although I hear noises all the time. And when I'm working in the kitchen I always feel as though there's someone standing behind me.”

With so much ghostly activity reported at The Formosa, I had to go and investigate and invited paranormal investigators Victoria Gross and Barry Conrad to join me, and after doing a quick walk thru of the restaurant, Victoria, a psychic medium, had to agree with Owen that the restaurant was indeed quite haunted.

As soon as she ventured into the kitchen, Victoria immediately picked up on the spirit of a man. “There's a very strong, aggressive energy over by the stove,” she told us after her initial investigation. “It was like he was warning me that this is his domain and I wasn't supposed to be in here. He's a very old spirit, a very protective Asian man, probably a cook, and he let me know that he did not want me in his space. He's very serious and took a lot of pride in his work. I saw him as being about 45-50 years old, and he dates back to the 1930s or 40s. He's rather short and kind of stocky in stature and was wielding a cleaver in his hand. He doesn't want to leave here and I get the feeling that he's overseeing everything that goes on.”

While Victoria was in the kitchen doing her investigation, Vince and I were at the bar talking about his grandfather, Lem who worked at the restaurant for 53 years. “He loved this place it was pretty much his life and he did everything here.” said Vince. He loved being around people, especially celebrities and enjoyed that facet of the business. He always had a keen understanding that no matter what type of clientele we have, we're in the hospitality business and the rest is just icing on the cake. People would come in just to hang out with him.”

When Victoria and I compared notes later on, her description of the man in the kitchen perfectly matched Vince's description of his grandfather, who did, in fact, do most of the cooking for many years.   Next Page