Everybody Came to Tana's

The real story behind Hollywood’s Dan Tana’s: the Serbian immigrant, soccer star, and restaurateur whose life was more extraordinary than anyone could imagine. Everybody Came to Tana’s is the memoir of Dan Tana—Hollywood’s ultimate host and an unlikely pioneer of American soccer. Written shortly before his death at 90, the book traces his astonishing arc: a Serbian boy who survived WWII bombings and post-war camps, became a European football star, acted in movies, produced award-winning films, inspired a hit TV character, and ultimately built one of Los Angeles’s most enduring institutions. Starting in 1964, Dan Tana’s restaurant became a clubhouse where stars like Sinatra, Streisand, and DiCaprio sat alongside politicians, athletes, gamblers, gangsters, and even the locals. Tana’s stories—told in his own neighborly voice—offer a front-row seat to Hollywood from the Golden Era to today. But while the restaurant made him famous, soccer powered his life. Tana played across Europe and North America, helped launch youth soccer in the US, fueled the sport’s early growth stateside, and even became president of the Serbian club where he once shined players’ shoes as a boy. At once a survival story, a Hollywood time capsule, and an untold history of the world’s game in America, Everybody Came to Tana’s captures a singular life lived at the crossroads of fame, loyalty, and myth.