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Eater
06-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
Nancy Silverton's Korean-Italian Pasta Bar Should Open This Fall in Koreatown
is an editor of the Southern California/Southwest region, who covers the evolving landscape of LA's food scene. Nancy Silverton's next Los Angeles restaurant is opening in Koreatown this fall. Lapaba, a new restaurant blending Italian and Korean cooking, is set to debut in October 2025 on the corner of Sixth Street and Western Avenue. Silverton first announced the restaurant on the February 20 episode of How Long Gone, a podcast hosted by Chris Black and Jason Stewart. The name is a portmanteau of 'la pasta bar,' a language device often used in Korean; other examples include 'somaek,' which combines soju and maekju (beer), and mukbang, a blend of meokneun (eating) and bangsong (broadcast). Husband-and-wife chef team McKenna Lelah and Matthew Kim, who met while working at Osteria Mozza under Silverton, will lead the kitchen at Lapaba. After Osteria Mozza, Kim went on to work at Alinea's sister restaurant, Next, while Lelah worked with chef Tim Hollingworth. The duo later worked together to open Dave Beran's Michelin-starred Dialogue, before Kim joined Pasjoli as chef de cuisine. Kim also made cannabis edibles for some with Oui'd Confection before shuttering the brand in May 2025. At Lapaba, expect classic Italian dishes with Korean twists, like kimchi suppli stuffed with Spam and mozzarella, and a little gem Caesar with doenjang. Pastas, which will be made on site in a dedicated pasta room, comprise dishes like cappelletti in a galbi brodo with mandu filling and campanella with basil and perilla pesto. Bucatini all'Amatriciana sauce will add in jjagang (Korean black bean paste), while tonnarelli comes with clams, garlic, and braised kombu. Desserts include Tiramisu-Garu, made with misugari and makgeolli, shaved ice, and soft serve. The interior, which features a curved stone bar looking into an open kitchen, was designed and fabricated in Italy by Costa. Silverton will open the restaurant with partners Robert Kim (Norikaya, AB Steak, Mama Lion), and siblings Tanya and Joe Bastianich, who are also co-owners at Osteria Mozza, Chi Spacca, and Mozza2Go. Joe Bastianich is also a co-owner of Eataly, where he worked with Mario Batali under their restaurant group, B&B Hospitality. Batali has since been removed from the group after several employees alleged sexual misconduct in 2015, and the name has since been changed to Pasta Resources. At the time of the investigation, the New York state attorney general found that both men were responsible for the toxic environment, and the group was ordered to pay $600,000 in a settlement. Lapaba will open with dinner service from Wednesday to Saturday, with plans to expand to lunch later on. Lapaba is set to open in October 2025 at 558 S. Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90020. Interior rendering of Lapaba. Lapaba Street view of Lapaba. Lapaba Eater LA All your essential food and restaurant intel delivered to you Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Time Out
05-08-2025
- Business
- Time Out
This iconic Brooklyn restaurant is closing after nearly a decade
If you've lived anywhere in the vicinity of Prospect Heights for the past decade, it is likely that you've come across the name Greg Baxtrom. Studying under the guise of Per Se and Alinea in Chicago and Dan Barber's Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Westchester, the chef brought his culinary know-how to Brooklyn in 2016, but in an accessible package, with the opening of Olmsted. His ambitions paid off as the restaurant easily became one of New York's finest, riding the wave of farm-to-table restaurants across the city. Over the years, Baxtrom expanded his footprint on Vanderbilt Street, starting with the self-billed French yakitori restaurant, Maison Yaki, and the Midwestern eatery that paid homage to his mother, Patti Ann's. Yet in the years since, it seems as though Baxtrom's hold on Prospect Heights has come loose. In 2023, Maison Yaki converted to a reimagined French bistro, Petite Patate, before shuttering at just eight months old. And earlier this spring, Patti Ann's quietly closed to little fanfare or announcement. Now, Baxtrom's last holdout on the street is also coming to a close, after a nine-year run. This week, Baxtrom announced that Olmsted is closing. Baxtrom posted about the closure on Instagram, stating that the last day for the restaurant would be Sunday, August 17. 'As we settle into nearly ten years on Vanderbilt Avenue with these small restaurants, I realize they no longer have the capacity to meet the standards that mean so much to me,' Baxtrom said via Instagram. He continued: 'Therefore, I am announcing that I will be closing Olmsted, closing this chapter and starting a new one with fresh restaurant opportunities that can meet our high standards here in NYC and across the country.' Reasoning for the closure included many factors, according to Baxtrom, including a focus on his sobriety and mental health. Yet, funding was a large attribute, as Baxtrom told Eater that their pre-COVID expansion had become "dead weight" and that it required investment "beyond his means." In the same Instagram post, Baxtrom asked the community that if anyone was interested in saving Olmstead, to 'please reach out.' In its nine-year tenure, the ambitious eatery topped many lists in the city, including our own, as our previous Food & Drink Editor remarked how the restaurant 'took Brooklyn and beyond by storm.' The eatery received recognition on a national stage, including a 2017 nomination for 'Best New Restaurant, New York' from the James Beard Foundation as well as a Bib Gourmand status from the Michelin Guide. Things seemed like business was as usual from the outside, as earlier this spring, Baxtrom reunited with the three Michelin-starred Alinea, hosting them at Olmsted for a 'multi-sensory experience' which quickly sold out. Of course, this isn't the last we'll see of Baxtrom. Beyond his teasing of opening a new chapter, the chef is releasing his first cookbook, Nothing Matters But Delicious, expected April of 2026. Baxtrom will continue to operate at his first Manhattan restaurant, Five Acres
Axios
04-08-2025
- Axios
Alinea brings fine dining pop-up to Montana ski country
Lincoln Park's three-Michelin-starred restaurant Alinea is taking its culinary theater to the Montana mountains this winter. Why it matters: A four-month pop-up aims to fuse a luxe dining experience with outdoor adventure, drawing food lovers to Big Sky Resort during its peak season. State of play: A concept called M by The Alinea Group will debut as part of a celebratory world tour marking the modernist tasting menu's 20th anniversary. Though short on menu specifics, the Montana residency, set in Mountain Village, will blend European technique with elements from the mountain terroir. What they're saying: "True luxury is finding the extraordinary in remote places," said chef Grant Achatz in a press statement. "That's what we're building here in Big Sky: something rare, fleeting, and deeply connected to nature." Zoom out: M is among a limited number of destinations on the restaurant's anniversary tour, along with Brooklyn, Miami Beach, Beverly Hills and Tokyo. What's next: Alinea's Big Sky outpost is set to open in mid-December — just in time for Chicagoans craving altitude with their fine dining. Reservations, which aren't live yet, are expected to sell out fast. Email to sign up for reservation notifications.
Eater
02-08-2025
- Business
- Eater
Olmsted Is Closing in Prospect Heights
is the lead editor of the Northeast region with more than 20 years of experience as a reporter, critic, editor, and cookbook author. Chef Greg Baxtrom's standout Prospect Heights restaurant Olmsted will close August 17 after nearly a decade, he announced on Instagram. Olmsted, named for the famous landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmsted, who shaped the design of public spaces such as Prospect Park and Central Park in New York, opened to much fanfare in 2016. It was in the process of being saved, he said in his post, but efforts fell through. The announcement comes weeks after Baxtrom shuttered nearby Patti Ann's, the midwestern-leaning restaurant and bakery named after his mother. His remaining restaurant, 5 Acres, continues to run at Rockefeller Center. When it debuted, Olmsted 'was originally focused on steak-and-potatoes accessibility. But that isn't quite how it played out,' Eater wrote in sizing up how it became 'the hottest restaurant in Brooklyn' by 2017. A native of Chicago, Baxtrom opened his first restaurant in New York after working at acclaimed restaurants like Mugaritz in Spain, Atera and Per Se in New York, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Tarrytown. He once described himself as the '18-year-old with braces' working in the kitchen at Chicago's Alinea — and his Prospect Heights restaurant recently hosted the Alinea pop-up in honor of its 20th anniversary. Olmsted reflects Baxtrom's experiences, incorporating a working garden where diners could enjoy cocktails a stone's throw from live quail. His early menus featured dishes like watermelon sushi, the famous carrot crepe with clams, guinea hen two ways, and desserts like the frozen yogurt with whipped lavender honey. And while prices were more expensive than what had been in the neighborhood, he opened with prices that were 'low' compared to similar caliber restaurants, Pete Wells said in a two-star New York Times review. Baxtrom outlines some of his reasons to close in his Instagram post. 'Deciding to close a restaurant is never based on a single decision, but rather on many factors.' First, he cites his decision to get sober five years ago, when 'it became clear that I needed to prioritize my mental health over the restaurants if I was going to continue living. However, I find it challenging to practice this in real life.' In addition, the funding that would have kept the restaurant afloat fell through. 'If you are someone who appreciated what we created and would be interested in partnering with me to save Olmsted,' Baxtrom says on Instagram, 'please reach out.' Baxtrom told Eater that their pre-COVID expansion had become 'a bit of dead weight,' he says. The plan was to revert the restaurant to its original size. 'It just required investment. Beyond my means.' He also spoke of his hopes that Vanderbilt Avenue would have become more of a destination street, with Akhtar Nawab opening Alta Calidad in 2017, along with Joe Campanale and Erin Shambura opening nearby Fausto in the old Franny's space that same year. 'I hoped more big restaurateurs were going to follow.' Today, 'Vanderbilt is surprisingly a very difficult neighborhood to navigate,' he says. On his Instagram post, he says he has 'no desire to leave the industry I love; it brings me so much joy.' And over DM with Eater, Baxtrom says that perhaps he'd like to eventually open something in Chicago. 'My folks are getting older and I'd like to be there more.' Baxtrom demonstrated through his businesses that he is close with his parents. Patti Ann's that shuttered in July wasn't just an homage in name. It referenced the food he grew up on in his family's suburban Illinois household and featured an interior that nodded to his mother's career as a teacher — complete with a map on the wall as decor, cubbies that his father helped him build, and a report card on the table's performance that came with the check. Eater NY All your essential food and restaurant intel delivered to you Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Eater
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
Why Alinea Is One of the U.S.'s Most Influential Restaurants
Maximalism and gastronomic creativity rule the day at Alinea, arguably one of the most famous (and most relentlessly blogged about) restaurants in the United States. Chef Grant Achatz, along with then-partner Nick Kokonas, opened the restaurant in May of 2005 in Chicago's Lincoln Park, and immediately intrigued an American food public weary of the routine fine dining choices. Since its opening night, meals at Alinea promised more than two dozen courses that featured wisps of smoke, bites hanging from tightropes, and all manner of flavors (milkweed pods! Dandelion roots and tobacco and lavender!) deconstructed, gelled, foamed, frozen, candied, microplaned, and all painstakingly grafted back together in wholly unexpected ways. Achatz was immediately vaulted into the echelon of the country's most influential chefs; later dishes like the apple taffy floating balloon and painted-table dessert became iconic. In addition to accolades — a 2007 James Beard Award for Achatz for Best Chef: Great Lakes, a 2016 James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant, numerous appearances on the World's 50 Best List, 3 Michelin stars — its mark is also felt in countless imitators who embraced the scientific, slightly gonzo approach to dining as an experience. The Alinea Group would expand to seven other concepts — including Next, which rotates its culinary focus every few months, and cocktail bar the Aviary. And many folks who spent time in the Alinea Group have gone on to make their own independent mark on the culinary world: Curtis Duffy, Dave Beran, John Shields, Alex Stupak, Jenner Tomaska, Jeff Pikus. In 2014, Ruth Reichl wrote: 'What makes Alinea such a fabulous experience is the sheer exuberant fun of the place. This is food as performance, food as surprise, food as you've never seen it before.' The restaurant still holds three Michelin stars. Today, Achatz reflects on 20 years at Alinea and considers what lies ahead. I had worked at the French Laundry and El Bulli, and felt there was a gap in fine dining, because prior to 2005, it was mostly [defined as] French cuisine: There were a few French culinarians in the U.S., like Daniel Boulud, but primarily it was showing up in Western Europe. In 2005, we're right at the peak of El Bulli, the Fat Duck — molecular kind of gastronomy. So we felt like it was an opportunity. With us and wd~50, it just migrated over the pond. In Chicago, the whole gastronomy scene was on a reset. Here, you had Schwa, which was basically a garage band doing highly, highly creative, well-executed food. You had a lot of older French restaurants, like Everest. You had Rick Bayless's places that had been around for a long time and were niche and Mexican-focused, and then you had Paul Kahan with Blackbird. An early but undated photo of the Alinea team shows, from left to right: John Shields (now chef-owner of Chicago's Smyth and the Loyalist), Achatz, and Curtis Duffy (now chef-owner of Chicago's Ever). Alinea It was ripe. Chicago was ready. Chicago was a town that embraces innovation and artistry with its history of architecture, music, and medicine. Our opening was really anticipated at that time, because I was blogging prior to the opening on eGullet, back when those forums were popular. That was the moment of the internet foodies. And so the anticipation was really high. We had a lot of attention right off the bat: We had Frank Bruni, then the restaurant critic at the New York Times, in the restaurant on opening night. Having a critic out of New York City at the time was unheard of, certainly on opening night. Achatz calls 'Hot Potato, Cold Potato' one of his favorite dishes served opening night: 'I felt it really embodied the spirit and the ethos of the restaurant at that time.' An elegant culinary game between hot and cold temperatures, it featured a hot ball of potato suspended over a creamy, chilled potato soup; the diner would sip all in one go and experience the same flavor in two temperatures at the same time. Alinea A brand-new 2025 dish called 'Fossil' invites guests to use an archeology toolkit to brush away 'debris' and uncover the food underneath. 'It's inspired by South American archeological finds, and my and the executive chefs' fascination with archeology,' Achatz says. 'We figured out a way to make a 'forest' that gastronomically fit into Argentina, which has the largest concentration of fossils in the world. It's pretty elaborate.' Alinea We were fortunate enough to be pretty popular off the bat. We just got super busy, and honestly, it never stopped. And then, in 2007, I got diagnosed with stage 4 tongue cancer. A lot of the guests weren't sure if they should even still visit. It was quiet for a bit while I was going to treatment. On the back end of 2008, we started to pick up some momentum. In 2010, the World's 50 Best named us Best in North America. And then in 2011, they did the same. And that really put us on the public diner's map. In 2016, after we were 10 years old, we renovated. With the downstairs dining room came this experimental menu. So that really catapulted our creativity further, and we just never stopped. I don't think we ever will. Thinking back on 20 years, there's an element of maturity that's hard to articulate. When you've had restaurants like Le Bernadin and the French Laundry, restaurants that have been around for 20 years or more, there's a certain intangible maturity. I believe that the employees and their guests can feel that. Looking back, I appreciate our resilience. The pandemic was disastrous for everyone, and the fact that we made it through that, that we kept everybody employed, I'm very proud of. Everything has changed. Wages have changed; rents have changed. There's a lot more reform to do. Here at the restaurant, it's changed tremendously. Back in 2005, there was a cliche of repression, toxicity, 17-hour days; nobody cared, nobody got paid. And now that has dramatically changed. Interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Sign up for Eater's newsletter The freshest news from the food world every day Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
