Chef/Owner Jonathan Burrows opened the first Mr. Cecil’s in July, 2000. He is a film producer by (original) profession and began by producing theatre – Broadway and off-Broadway – in the mid-sixties. By the time he moved to Los Angeles in 1990, he had worked on eighteen major films, most of which you’ve heard of, with producing credits on two.

As an amateur chef for many years at “Chez Lui” he found his friends praising his cooking. After some time he flattered himself into believing them & started thinking about opening a restaurant.

The name “Mr. Cecil” was a pet name for his Dad, Selig Burrows, who occasionally was called Felix, Cecil, or Seelegs or even Skeeziks by those who didn’t really know him and who found “Selig” foreign to pronounce and even harder to remember. When Jonathan and his wife Annie (many of whose recipes are on the menu) started seriously exploring the idea of opening a restaurant, it was Annie’s idea to call it Mr. Cecil’s. She thought it would not only serve as a tribute to Selig, but that the name would work for a barbecue restaurant. Selig Burrows was not a cook. He actually barely knew where the kitchen was, now and then having to ask the butler to direct him. But he did enjoy an occasional bout with the barbecue grill (photos on the restaurant’s west wall are both of him, taken maybe 40 years apart), so it is fitting in several ways to use his likeness as the caricature logo and to name the restaurant after him.