A groundbreaking wine bar to close this summer because ‘continuing felt untenable'

Los Angeles Times

19 hours ago

A popular and groundbreaking wine bar from two of L.A.'s most celebrated restaurateurs is set to close this summer. On Saturday the Lucques Group's Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne announced they will shutter the Brentwood location of A.O.C. on Aug. 1, ending their run of 16 years in the space.
Goin and Styne cited a range of factors in their decision to close the Brentwood location, including sustained financial damages from the 2025 fires, the 2024 entertainment industry strikes, the pandemic and high rent.
'At this point, with this confluence of circumstances, continuing felt untenable,' Goin and Styne told The Times in an email. 'We are heartbroken that our Brentwood era has come to an end — we are so grateful to the 16 years' worth of staff, customers, farmers, vendors, winemakers and others who fueled our experience and made it a true joy.'
A.O.C. in West Hollywood will remain open. The lauded California-cuisine restaurant and wine bar has helped proliferate elegant but casual, produce-driven small plates since its founding in 2002. Goin and Styne operated Tavern, another of their restaurants, in the Brentwood space until 2021 and opened a new, larger location of A.O.C. in that location the same year.
'If the two A.O.C.s share little in common physically, they are identical twins philosophically,' L.A. Times Food critic Bill Addison wrote in a 2021 review. 'The menu redoubles the communal, small-plates ethos that Goin and Styne led the charge to codify in Los Angeles. The bounty is Californian; the oomph of flavors draws on cuisines distinct to the many cultures that exist around the continents-spanning Mediterranean Sea.'
A.O.C. is open in Brentwood Monday and Tuesday from 5 to 9 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
11648 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, [phone], aocwinebar.com
What started as a homespun operation and catering service is now a buzzing dining room and a growing center of Filipino culture in Silver Lake.
Manila Inasal began humbly in chef Natalia Moran's San Juan home kitchen, where she cooked to feed front line workers during the pandemic. After reconnecting with her longtime family friends — Elzar Dodjie Simon, his wife and children — they became business partners and formed an L.A. ghost kitchen and catering service for Filipino rice bowls and heaped trays full of the likes of lumpia, adobo and ube mochi brownies.
Fans became so ravenous that multiple guests drove hours for a taste, sometimes visiting from other states, only to find no physical space for dining. It was then, the Simon family told The Times, that they realized they needed to open a full restaurant.
At the team's brick-and-mortar space, located in a strip mall bordering Virgil Village, Moran and the Simons are serving even more modern spins onFilipino cuisine with an expanded menu and options such as salted duck egg Caesar salad, laing reimagined as dip with focaccia, inasal-marinated milkfish, crab tortang talong, pork belly lechon sisig, a deconstructed kare kare made with oxtail and macadamia nuts and jackfruit-and-tofu adobo.
The dishes are portioned and served family style, a nod to Filipino's community-focused culture. Moran is also developing a high-tea menu, as well as new specials.
'We wanted to bring Filipino ingenuity and modernity,' said operating chief Elisha Paul Simon, adding, 'We're just so proud of Filipino culture in a world where it's so diverse.'
'We want to be part of the diversity,' said Moran. 'There's lots of Thai restaurants and Japanese and Korean ones. We want to make sure Filipino food is somewhere there, too.'
Elzar Dodjie Simon, a songwriter and music producer, also built a small stage into the dining room, where guests can hear Filipino artists' live music on weekends. Manila Inasal is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
240 Virgil Ave., Los Angeles, [phone], manilainasal.com
One of the Westside's most popular new restaurants is serving rotisserie chickens, fresh pastas, a rainbow of seasonal vegetables and fruit-laced salads, budget-conscious cocktails and house-made gelati in a former Mar Vista market and corner store. Hospitality vet and L.A. native Jeremy Adler (who worked at Cobi's and Resy) wanted to reimagine the 1949-built Beethoven Market into a neighborhood restaurant where families and dates can comingle on a tree-dotted, bulb-lit patio or in the dim, constantly humming dining room that overlooks a semi-open kitchen.
To head that kitchen, Adler tapped executive chef Michael Leonard (formerly of Rustic Canyon, Bucato and Mother Wolf), who leans heavily on the Santa Monica Farmers Market to inform his menu. Leonard's dishes trend Italian with a California-produce bent, such as seared prawns with fresh salsa verde; pizzas that come topped with clams, heirloom-pork sausage, zucchini, Meyer lemon and beyond; salads bright with citrus or stone fruit; and pork collar with cherries and roasted cabbage. Cocktails, priced around $13, involve strawberry shrubs, thyme-infused aperitifs, vodka infused with olive oil and more.
It's Adler's first standalone restaurant and one he hopes will be a boon to the neighborhood. The restaurateur lives nearby and wants to build more community through services like a possible early reservation system for locals. Beethoven Market is open Sunday to Wednesday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Thursday to Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m., with brunch service to follow.
12904 Palms Blvd., Los Angeles, [phone], beethovenmarket.com
Westlake Village's buzzy new food hall is already home to some of L.A.'s biggest names, including Mini Kabob and a pizza offshoot from the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills.
Now, one of the world's most famous musicians is joining the quick-service food lineup. Grammy Award-winning artist Questlove — born Ahmir Thompson — is perhaps best known for his work as a producer and as the Roots' drummer and co-frontman, but he's also a cookbook author and food aficionado.
Now he's launched Mixtape, a new chicken shack that specializes in tenders, ground-chicken burgers and fried chicken sandwiches, plus offering vegetarian options and sides such as black-eyed peas slaw and waffle fries. Guests order Mixtape items from a touch screen within Neighborly food hall, which allows for mixing and matching dishes across the food hall's stands. Mixtape is open Sunday to Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
4000 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Westlake Village, beneighborly.com
Prolific chef Eyal Shani recently touched down in Los Angeles with the first of what he hopes will be multiple West Coast restaurants. With a menu involving fresh stuffed pita, blistered peppers and a signature whole baby cauliflower, Shani's quick-and-casual Middle Eastern restaurant Miznon can now be found in Grand Central Market in the former Sari Sari Store stall.
Shani founded his pita shop in Tel Aviv in 2011, then expanded the operation globally with outposts that include Tokyo, Paris, London, New York City and Las Vegas — where it's one of the best restaurants on or off the Strip. Shani, now with more than 40 restaurants under his hospitality group, riffs on his Moroccan and Iraqi Jewish heritage and modern classics with Miznon dishes such as lamb kebab pita with spicy green peppers and grilled tomato; chicken schnitzel with matbucha; mesabaha lima beans with hard-boiled egg and tomato seeds; steel-seared 'candy' brisket; cheeseburger pita sandwiches; and a fish-and-chips pita made with branzino, potatoes and vinegar. Miznon is open daily in Grand Central Market from 11 a.m to 9 p.m.
317 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, miznonusa.com