Latest news with #Styne
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
A groundbreaking wine bar to close this summer because ‘continuing felt untenable'
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, (310) 806-6464, 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, (909) 206-5568, 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, (323) 579-1391, 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, 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,
Observer
22-03-2025
- Automotive
- Observer
Elon Musk gets ready to enter the restaurant business
A retro-futuristic diner is rising on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. Curved, silvery, and flanked by two outdoor film screens, it looks as if a flying saucer sailed out of a 1950s drive-in movie and came to rest in the parking lot. An opening date has not been announced, but Tesla's all-night diner, theater and charging station is clearly on its way. Which means the company's leader, Elon Musk, is about to enter the hospitality business. In 2023, when Musk posted on his social platform, X, that Tesla would build a diner in Los Angeles, he described it as 'Grease meets Jetsons with Supercharging.' As he has often done, he put his finger on a major piece of culture ripe for reinvention — in this case, gas station dining in the age of electric cars, which need longer to recharge than it takes to top off a tank — and put a visionary, gee-whiz spin on it. That was before the chainsaw. Before DOGE and the 'fork in the road' email and the what-did-you-do-last-week email. Before anti-Musk protests at Tesla dealerships became weekly occurrences in LA and other cities. Before the White House promised to treat vandalism against Teslas as domestic terrorism. Before a 50% drop in Tesla's stock price took shareholders on a fast ride from 'gee-whiz' to 'look out below.' All of which have made Tesla's foray into restaurants a far more loaded prospect than it seemed a short time ago. Construction on the half-acre complex, designed by engineering and architecture firm Stantec, has moved rapidly since it began in September 2023. Above white charging stations that stand in the paved parking lot like headstones are two elevated screens, which a building permit application filed in 2022 said would show films lasting about half an hour, or roughly the time it would take to charge a vehicle. Behind the diner's curved walls and windows, quilted moving blankets are wrapped around what looks like circular banquettes. A sharp-eyed observer noticed that the Tesla app was updated with a code for a diner menu in January. For many months now, the company has been approaching well-known chefs about providing the food. When Caroline Styne and Suzanne Goin, who own the Lucques Group of restaurants in Los Angeles, fielded an inquiry from Tesla in 2023 about operating the diner, they decided against it. The restaurant wouldn't have a liquor license, Styne said, which made the economics challenging, and besides, 'we're not drive-in diner kind of people.' Styne hasn't changed her mind about that, but she does see the carmaker differently now. Last week, she replaced her Tesla with an electric BMW. 'This person has taken such a major role in everything that's going on and affecting everybody's daily lives,' she said of Musk. 'And it's so crazy when you think this person wasn't even elected.' Wolfgang Puck Catering, which provides chicken potpies and other food for the yearly party after the Academy Awards, was also approached by Tesla around the same time, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions who asked for anonymity to speak about confidential conversations. The company did not respond to a request for comment. The project is so closely guarded that restaurant groups must first sign a nondisclosure agreement that, among other things, forbids disclosure of the agreement itself, according to two people who requested anonymity because they had signed one. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. For many chefs, a prodigiously well-funded company offering a chance to run an innovative restaurant that is virtually guaranteed to get attention would be an answered prayer. In interviews, several restaurateurs said they would be interested if Tesla called. 'It sounds exciting,' said chef Walter Manzke, who owns République in LA with his wife, Margarita. 'She told me the other day that she wants to buy a Tesla, so I can tell you what side she's on.' New York-based chef John Fraser said that some time ago, he and other people in his group, JF Restaurants, began talking about gas station food, a genre where they saw room for improvement. 'Anytime that a location or a food-service style changes the way that food and beverage incorporates into our lives, I want to be involved in it,' Fraser said. 'This location is likely to do that because it's changing the idea of what a gas station or convenience store could be.' While registrations of Tesla vehicles in California fell about 12% last year, the Model Y was still far and away the bestselling new car in the state. Few U.S. cities took to Tesla as quickly and enthusiastically as LA, where high gas prices, warm weather, environmental awareness, local policies and the company's head start in the electric-car race conspire to make Tesla seem, at times, like the city's default carmaker. The area's early affection for Tesla inspired Shake Shack to approach the company with a proposal before it opened its first LA location, in 2016. 'We said, 'We're in the land of Tesla; why don't we see if they would like to put some charging stations in our parking lot?'' Danny Meyer, who helped found Shake Shack, recalled. The electric vehicle maker wasn't interested at the time, Meyer said. He said he had not been in talks about the diner project and probably would not take it on. Before his restaurants enter agreements with museums, ballparks, and the like, Meyer said, 'We ask ourselves if our piece of art belongs in that frame.' As for Tesla, 'That's not a frame I would choose,' he said. 'I might have 10 years ago because I think it had a different shine on it at that point.' Back then, the brand 'was all about the environment. It seemed like a pretty cool thing.' Chef Paul Kahan, of One Off Hospitality in Chicago, said he would not be interested in working with Musk's company for several reasons. 'I prefer to stay out of the madness and lean into unity,' he said. Many restaurateurs are reluctant to express any opinion about Tesla because of the combative views, both pro and con, that people have about the company now. 'I wouldn't imagine most of my friends saying yes to this,' said chef David Chang, who lives in Los Angeles County. 'But I couldn't imagine them wanting to say that publicly either, because of how polarizing both sides are.' Certain contentious issues used to be called the third rail of American politics. Now all of American politics is the third rail. For restaurateurs who are used to making their values on such issues as the environment and immigration part of their businesses' image, navigating the crosscurrents of public opinion can be challenging. Any chef with other restaurants would have to take Musk's reputation into the calculus before signing a deal, said Max Block, founder of the LA hospitality-communications agency Carvingblock. On the other hand, a diner where drivers can watch a movie from their charging station while eating a meal delivered by carhops on roller skates — as Musk has suggested — would appeal to what Block called 'a culture where people dine for experiences.' Besides, he said, public perceptions of people and companies are liable to change. 'We live in a city where people love a good comeback story,' he said. This article originally appeared in
