Authorities hunted for three brazen gun-toting robbers Friday after a woman dining on the patio of the ritzy Beverly HIlls ‘celeb hot spot’ Il Pastaio was shot as the gunmen robbed another diner of a watch apparently worth $500,000.
Officers were called about 2:10 p.m. Thursday to the Italian restaurant Il Pastaio in the 400 block of North Canon Drive on a report of a robbery with gunfire. They arrived to find a woman who had been eating a leisurely lunch outdoors at the upscale eatery had been shot in the leg. Her injuries, however, were not life-threatening.
The victim was not the intended target, according to police.
“The female was at the location with two other people when three male suspects demanded property from another patron,” according to a Beverly Hills Police Department statement. “One of the suspects shot the female and the three suspects fled the location on foot.”
Witnesses told CBSLA the suspects tried stealing a man’s watch as he sat in the restaurant’s patio area at the corner of Canon Drive and Brighton Way. The robbery victim told NBC4 that one of the suspects threatened him with a gun and forced him to give up the timepiece, which he said was valued at $500,000, although there was no official confirmation of that value.
The wounded woman, whose name and age were not released, was taken to a local hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening, according to a BHPD captain.
The wounded woman’s boyfriend told NBC4 he heard a gunshot and immediately turned toward her.
“As I was grabbing her and throwing her and her friend through the doorway, there were three more shots and there was, like, bullets right in the brick, in the sidewalk where our table was,” Drew Hancock told the TV station.
A second person who “suffered physical injury during the incident” was treated at the scene, police reported.
TMZ identified the restaurant as a long-time “celeb hot spot.” In fact, the restaurant’s website advises hopeful diners to make reservations. Reservations for outdoor tables that wrap around the restaurant along two city sidewalks were always difficult for non-celebrities, even before indoor dining was prohibited.
According to the restaurant’s website, the eatery is owned by Giacomino Drago of the famed Southern California dining Drago family. The restaurant is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and the website boasts it is “one of the best kitchens in the city.” While most pastas are priced around $20, a veal chop is listed on the lunch menu at $42.50.