The echo of legends

If I had to pick a restaurant for my last meal on Earth, it'd be this place. I'd order its signature (and gloriously simple) Ambrosia burger and its knock-your-socks-off Margarita, take a seat outside on the patio - and watch the sun sink into the Pacific.

I'd have to assume I could get a seat for my last-ever meal - the restaurant doesn't do reservations, even if you're Brad Pitt (and Brad Pitt eats here). Reservations go against the grain of Nepenthe, and the town it's part of (Central California's Big Sur). Reservations suggest priority, no way maan.

The menu's good: American staples cooked diligently - burgers, rib eyes, pan-seared fish and chicken, and a pleasant tasting salad - but no-one's here for the food alone.

Three generations of the same family have owned and run this place - after Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth sold it to them (in 1947). Bill and Lolly Fassett thought the views from here were too good to keep to themselves. So they commissioned a simple redwood and adobe restaurant perched on the edge of California, 250 metres above the sea, beneath the Santa Lucia Mountains. It soon attracted every megastar they'd ever heard of (from Hemingway to McQueen to Salvador Dali).

There's no wi-fi, or phone reception. You'll see a lot of visitors these days waving their phones around, but Instagram and Facebook's no good here. Sunset's the best time to be here, though the stars above from out on that patio are every bit as spectacular.

By then though I'm inside at the bar, soaking up the legacy of everyone who ever frequented this joint. Travel up and down Highway One a thousand times and you'll never feel California quite like you will in this place.

There's no pictures on the wall of all the long-gone legends who came here before you. You'll just feel the little bits of magic they left behind. nepenthe.com