Mary Preston has enough personality to take over an entire restaurant—which she does most nights when she hops up on a table at Birds and hula-hoops (some nights she can be found teaching the basics in the bar).

She’s a hands-on owner who offers to climb the teetering ladder to fix a fan blade, and speaks fluent Spanish to her staff. The menu of basic homestyle cooking isn't going to impress foodies, but Preston is the first to say that Birds is not primarily about the food. 

Preston and business partner Henry Olek started the restaurant back in 1994 when he was a writer and she was an actress and a couple of writers' strikes prompted them to seek other ways to make a living. 

Both lived in the Hollywood Hills and wanted the restaurant to be close by. They bought the space, which used to be a Chinese restaurant, and the rest is chicken and wine.

Hollywood Patch: How did you come up with the concept for Birds?

Mary Preston: I think necessity is the mother of invention. I didn’t want to hire a chef because I knew that chefs take a third of your profits right off the top.

So, I wanted something that leaned towards the healthy side of eating. Rotisserie chicken was all the rage at the time. I knew that the machine itself would cook the chicken.

I’m not a great cook, but I’m more into the bar side. I’m not a chef, so we decided to do down-home recipes. A lot of the recipes are my mother’s. The corn bread and the chicken pot pie and stuff like that.  We wanted something that was fast and affordable, but not fast food. It’s fast food with a liquor license. That’s what I call it.

Patch: Has Birds changed over the years?

Preston: Well, in some ways it hasn’t changed at all. Because the neighborhood feel hasn’t changed. A lot of people say this neighborhood reminds them of their favorite neighborhood in New York, because everyone kinds of know each other. I think that’s the beauty of the neighborhood. It hasn’t changed. 

Patch: Tell me about the hula-hooping.

Preston: I don’t know where it came from. At this point I need to pass the baton though. I’ve been doing it for 17 years. It was an easier game when I was in my 30s.

You know, on the nights that I work here, I would always look for things to do to keep the customers active and stimulated. You always feel when you know you’re about to lose your customers, and I would sense that I was about to lose my ground. So, you find an activity.

Over the years it’s been anything from hula-hooping to lighting the bar on fire—which we don’t do any more because we got in trouble—to balancing cocktail glasses, sort of like Jenga, to hopscotch, to limbo, conga line, you name it. I am into cheap gags. 

Patch: Can you tell me about the work that Birds does with animal rescues?

Preston: I used to do animal rescue myself. Obviously with the restaurant keeping me very busy, I’m not a full on rescuer anymore.

I used to be hardcore, you know, hopping fences and stealing abused dogs. So now, I donate a good portion of my profits to other rescue groups. I also arrange adoptions through the restaurant.

I use the restaurant as a advertising base for anyone who is looking for a dog. I try to refer them to the rescues I donate to, or I’ll take them to the shelter myself and bail out a a animal there. 

Patch: How do you think Birds has stood the test of time?

Preston: I don’t have any idea. I try not to look my good fortune in the face and question it. I just go “Thank You.” I haven’t had to get a real job in 17 years. I mean, it’s a real job, it’s hard work, but it’s so much fun that it doesn’t feel like work. 

LA is a sprawling city and can be very isolating. I think people seek this block out because they feel like somebody knows their name.