Eataly Los Angeles
WHY The nation’s best food stars are opening outposts in L.A., mostly in malls.
WHEN Early spring; give new restaurants the chance to shake off opening glitches.
DRIVE Imagine the worst day of traffic in Seattle, then double it; leave that much extra time when driving in LA.
1. San Francisco bakery Tartine made like Cher from Clueless and went straight to Fred Segal, opening a cafe in the swanky department store in late 2017. A larger Tartine Manufactory, in partnership with Phoenix’s James Beard Award–winning pizza god Chris Bianco, opens in spring at Row DTLA, an Arts District retail and restaurants project (don’t call it a mall).
2. While New York’s Momofuku inspired gushing praise and epic waits for its ramen, David Chang’s brand-new North Spring restaurant is no clone; he’ll dish an original menu, likely featuring smoked meats—a Twitter post suggests he’s installed a giant smoker in the industrial space.
3. We were a little embarrassed for Manhattan when it went bonkers for the original croissant-meets-doughnut Cronut (even if we also freaked for Seattle copies). But Angelenos similarly lost their chill for the LA version—white peach jam and muscovado ganache—that the creator debuted at the November launch of Dominique Ansel Bakery at the Grove (yep, another mall).
4. Italy’s best is crammed into Westfield Century City (who would’ve guessed, a mall!) at Eataly, the Turin-born food marketplace backed by Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich, which opened in fall 2017 with 30,000 pounds of cheese for sale and nine takeaway food counters.
5. LA is even bigger than chef Dave Beran’s old base of Chicago where he earned his stripes at Windy City heavy hitters Alinea and Next, but his new Santa Monica eatery has just 18 seats, half of them at a counter. Dialogue, in true SoCal style, sees no incongruity in $210-plate fine dining located in a—you guessed it—pedestrian mall.
Image: Courtesy Dialogue
Published in the Long Weekend Escapes issue of Seattle Met.
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