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69 Q3 2019 / CINEMONTAGE Reporter, director David Lynch (also a Guild picture editor) revealed that Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) originated with a lunch at Musso's with co-creator Mark Frost in 2012. "I love the restaurant, the booths on the old side," Lynch offers. "It's the real- deal Hollywood." Yet many of the Musso's mainstays emphasize that they go to the restaurant for personal reasons — to celebrate a milestone, send off a colleague or mourn a friend. "When somebody is leaving to go on location, or they're moving somewhere, I can't even tell you how many times it's like, 'Well, let's go to Musso's,'" Frazen observes. "In my mind, there is no place that supersedes it in being special." In 2011, after attending a memorial service for an assistant editor with whom he had worked, Tronick called his wife on the drive home. "I called her — and obviously, it was very impactful and it was very emotional — and she just said to me, 'I'll meet you at Musso's.' And we did," he recalls. On that sad day, the comfort food — a filet, a baked potato and a glass of bourbon — was just what was needed. "I don't know if 'spiritual' is right, but it's just affirming," Tronick continues. "Honestly, I just feel very comfortable there, regardless of where we're sitting. We like the little 'twosies' booths in the room on the west side, but if it's all crowded, wherever there's availability; I'm not that particular — just to be in the restaurant." THE CARNIVORE CLUB In fact, one group of film professionals — including picture editors, storyboard artists and a screenwriter — found themselves so drawn to Musso's that they established a dinner club that gathers the first Tuesday of each month at the restaurant. Dubbed the Carnivore Club, the group currently includes several post-production professionals, among them picture editors Alan Bell, ACE, and Steven Nevius, and assistant editor Andrew Blustain. In the late 1980s, Nevius — along with Blustain, a founding member of the club — had just joined the Editors Guild when he was hired as an assistant on The Princess Bride (1987), edited by Leighton and directed by Reiner. While on the film, he fell into the routine of going to lunch at Musso's. "The schedules were slower, and computer editing hadn't taken over yet," the editor remembers. "It didn't matter if you were behind, or there was a mountain of work. While we were sitting there, having a drink or something after lunch, it would be like, 'You know, this and that would be better in the cut…'" Cottoning to the idea of hanging out at old-school restaurants like Musso's or the Nickodell, Nevius got together with four friends — Blustain, storyboard artists Richard Newsome and Eric Ramsey, and effects animator Marlon West — to establish what became the Carnivore Club. "It started out as five guys, and very quickly all the closest friends we had wanted to come," he recalls, adding that new initiates had to start as guests before they could become members. And one rule was observed above all others: No vegetarians. "This dinner club is for eating meat, drinking alcohol and having forthright conversation," Nevius declares. Bell — also an assistant editor under Leighton who soon joined the Carnivore Club — said that in the early days of the group, members helped other members pay for the sometimes- expensive bill at Musso's. "We were just basically kind of week- Meet Me at Musso's CONTINUED FROM PAGE 45 The Carnivore Club at Musso's in 2018, from left, producer James Mulay, editor Alan Bell, assistant editor Andrew Blustain, video design engineer Frank Rada, director Dave Parker, editor Steven Nevius, storyboard artists Rick Newsome, Michael Anthony Jackson and Eric Ramsey, screenwriter Josh Olson, effects animator Marlon West and storyboard artist Richard K. Buoen. Courtesy of Steven Nevius The Carnivore Club outside Musso's in 1992, from left, Eric Ramsey, Marlon West, Rick Newsome, Andrew Blustain and Steven Nevius. Courtesy of Steven Nevius