Young But Vital

Print |

Nguyen and Thi Tran, Starry Kitchen

A New Crop of Restaurateurs Enlivens LA Dining

By Joshua Lurie
For dineLA.com

Restaurateurs like Wolfgang Puck and Joachim Splichal have amassed enough cred and clout to fill several careers. Now there’s a new generation (there always is) of young restaurant, bar and cafe owners who are breathing new life into the LA dining scene and gaining their own glory.



Neil Kwon’s parents started working in Seoul restaurants in their teens, and even met on the job. After moving Stateside in 1989, his father opened a series of restaurants, including Shogun in Koreatown and Sushi Denka in Pasadena, which is where Neil entered the fray. He hosted, translated for non-Korean customers and washed dishes during high school. After majoring in Sociology at Cal, he managed the family’s Hakata Sushi in Santa Monica and worked for his uncle’s solar energy start-up. The financial meltdown froze the project, so on March 15, 2010, he opened Biergarten, taking over a barbecue chicken restaurant with an ideal layout for a beer bar. He remembered backpacking through Europe, stopping at biergartens in Berlin and Munich. “When I was there, you’d see families with kids, you’d see old couples, college students, all having a good time in one setting, with beer,” recalls Kwon. “It was a community.” He’s attempted to recreate that vibe in Koreatown, only indoors. He arms over 20 taps with craft beer and serves bar food, including Korean-style fried chicken, beer butt chicken lavished with beer, honey and lemons, even a German sausage platter. “It’s not just food, it’s not just beer, it’s the whole experience,’ says Kwon. Now that he knows that, he’s considering an “Asian speakeasy” that would showcase Asian spirits and izakaya-style small plates.

- Biergarten, 206 N. Western Ave., Koreatown, 323.466.4860



As recently as February 2009, Dustin Lancaster never expected to own a bar. He was acting by day and running Café Stella’s bar by night when a TV producer friend asked his advice about investing in a restaurant. He said, half-joking, “You should just give me the money.” His friend surprisingly agreed. Lancaster enrolled in a business class at UCLA Extension and developed a plan for what became Covell, which is named for the main street in his hometown of Deer Creek, Oklahoma. He built out the space himself, including his wall-mounted Indian motorcyle, his camera collection and a bar made from reclaimed Douglas fir. Lancaster and wine director Matthew Kaner curate eight taps of craft beer and source eclectic, worldly wines. “What we do differently is give everyone an individual experience,” says Lancaster. “It takes a lot more time and effort. When you’re busy, it would be easy to hand someone a wine list and say, ‘Good luck.’ But they don’t get the full experience, and that’s the bottom line.” Cheese plates and charcuterie appear on cross sections of tree. The limited menu also includes mac and cheese and a croque monsieur. This might actually be a case where Lancaster is able to have it all. Covell has become a Los Feliz hub, Lancaster’s considering a second establishment, and his commercial acting career has never been more fruitful. As he said, “I just don’t financially have to rely on that paycheck, and that frees you up to have maybe a little more fun, and it just takes that edge off.” As a result, look for him at Covell, or on TV in a new AT&T ad.

- Covell, 4628 Hollywood Blvd., Los Feliz, 323.660.4400, www.barcovell.com



Westwood Village was thriving in the ’80s and gradually dimmed for over a decade. Now J Wolf and chef/co-owner Nick Jacobs have infused new life near UCLA, rocking what feels like a perpetual happy hour in their airy restaurant. Jacobs attended the Institute of Culinary Education [ICE] in Manhattan and worked in a series of high-profile kitchens, including a stint as sous chef for a world’s worth of masters at the James Beard House, where he was able to amass “tricks of the trade.” He moved to LA and unknowingly had an audition for Wolf when he catered cupcakes for a party. He and opening partner Adrian Selby (who decamped for Vegas) were hunting for locations and brought Jacobs on board. Wolf had been working for Hollywood restaurants and nightclubs, including Essex Public House. “After building that project, I kind of felt, if all these other people are doing it, I could too,” says Wolf. “That set the wheels in motion.” Jacobs and Wolf transformed Moustache Café, which existed for over two decades. “I started the search and looked at one location, and one location only,” says Wolf, who credits The Glendon with bringing “a little of that Hollywood-esque majesty into Westwood.” They’re already considering additional concepts, but as Jacobs said, “It will not be The Glendon 2.”

- 1071 Glendon Ave., Westwood, 310.208.2023, www.glendonla.com



Bricia Lopez and brother Fernando grew up in Oaxaca, Mexico, not far from where their father developed calloused hands while smashing maguey plants for mezcal. Once the Lopez family moved to LA, Bricia joined her mother in Santa Barbara, where they sold food behind a house. In 1994, her parents opened Guelaguetza, the acclaimed Oaxacan restaurant. Bricia and Fernando eventually came to dread working there. Bricia admits to being “so tired and so jaded,” but after working for the family’s importing company, she found inspiration with Pal Cabron, the now-closed Puebla sandwich and Oaxaca "pizza" concept that replaced the original Guelaguetza (two locations remain, Olympic and Plaza Mexico). Of her Pal Cabron experience, Bricia says: “We got to be more creative, we got to design the menu, we got to do all the fun stuff. That’s when I fell in love with it again.” She considers herself more “innovative and creative,” and credits her brother with developing “systems and numbers.” Fernando said, “At the end of the day, we’re family. We help each other out.” More recently, Bricia launched The Mezcaleria at the Olympic location. The concrete bar is located just past the restaurant's central stage, and features dozens of mezcals selected by Bricia, known for her love of the smoky agave spirit. Guelaguetza showcases the cuisine of Oaxaca’s central valley, and the siblings would like to create a complementary concept that highlights the Mexican state’s different regions, they just need to lock down a location.

- 3014 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, 213.427.0608, guelaguetzarestaurante.com



Food blogger turned ice cream man. That’s certainly part of Matthew “Mattatouille” Kang’s story, but a small part. Before opening Scoops Westside in December 2010, he worked as a financial analyst at a bank, convinced he would remain “trudging away” behind a desk. All that changed in 2008 when blogging allowed him to interact with food and drink professionals. “Small business owners love talking about their business,” he says. “I started to get a handle on it and realized, okay, this is something that I could possibly do.” He already looked to Scoops ice cream artisan Tai Kim as a mentor, and they began discussing a Westside spinoff. Kang found investors and theory became practice. Now, six days a week, he’s scooping exotic flavors like taro coconut and Brown Brown Bread (dulce de leche with sugared Grape Nuts and caramel) in a Palms strip mall. He’s also brewing pourover Intelligentsia coffee with a barista’s focus. Still, the biggest attraction/challenge remains his perpetually rotating flavors. “It’s kind of like ‘Groundhog Day.’ Every day’s new,” says Kang. “People have an idea of what ice cream should be…My job is to say, we’re selling something a little bit different…It’s encouraging people to try new things and step out of their comfort zone. Ice cream is a comfort food, so some people really don’t want to do that.” Still, Kang has already managed to cultivate adherents thanks to his unique product and social media savvy.

- 3400 Overland Ave., Los Angeles, 323.405.7055



Thi Tran had no interest in owning a restaurant, but after getting laid off from her advertising gig, she found the catalyst to start cooking in their North Hollywood apartment. At the time, husband Nguyen was working for William Morris, in the agency’s independent film division, and promised his wife that if their underground kitchen gained momentum, he’d quit his job. Starry Kitchen, named for Thi’s favorite Hong Kong cooking show, exploded in popularity on Yelp. When their friends’ sushi restaurant in downtown’s California Plaza went under, they recruited the Trans to take over their lease. The Texas natives harnessed the power of social media to build their pan-Asian concept. Nguyen taught herself to cook while attending the University of Texas, making dishes like bun rieu, a ground pork, crab and tomato soup with noodles. At Starry Kitchen, she rotates weekly specials like Nom Nom Pork and their notorious green tofu balls. Nguyen runs the front of house, handles marketing and bakes desserts like durian flan cheesecake. “I’m fairly ambitious, so a second location is the tip of the iceberg,” says Nguyen, who said they’re beginning to move forward with a Westside location, which will utilize gas instead of convection ovens and induction burners. Thi also wants to mix it up with beer and bar food.

- 350 S. Grand Ave., Downtown, 213.617.3474, www.starrykitchen.com



Tyler Wilson was a USC student who was looking for a change when he contacted cousin Joseph Pitruzzelli, a principal in a boutique firm that was designing bars and nightclubs. “As the idea fully developed, we realized pretty quickly that it was something really special and unique, a niche and easy to understand,” says Wilson. In December 2008, they opened Wurstkuche in a former (triangular) printing shop and put downtown’s Arts District on the map with their food, drink and industrial design. They sell “Exotics” like rattlesnake and rabbit, “Gourmet” links like pork and beef Kielbasa and “Classics” like bratwurst, plus Belgian fries and European craft beer. “We gained a lot of valuable experiences through this, some of our trial and errors, and some of our mistakes,” says Pitruzzelli. “None of them were that costly or dangerous, and I think they taught us a lot.” With that in mind, they plan to open a second Wurstkuche in an emerging area of Venice, hopefully in May. Pitruzzelli said the spinoff will be “eerily similar” in terms of architecture and menu. They’ve also explored Denver and Austin, two other cities they consider emerging. Things have gone fairly smoothly for the Wurstkuche crew, but as Pitruzzelli said, “Don’t ever tell yourself, this is going to be simple. Everything’s going to be a lot of work, so just be prepared for that. Also…continue to question what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.”
 
- Wurstkuche, 800 E. 3rd St., Downtown, 213.687.4444, www.wurstkucherestaurant.com



Their family’s owned a chain of Goldilocks Bake Shops since 1976, but Mendrick Leelin and brother Michael didn’t settle for just baking. Instead, they fell hard for shabu shabu, a DIY, Japanese method for cooking beef, seafood and vegetables in bubbling water and dipping them in delectable sauces. Their mother Yojie became convinced she could recreate the sauces, so they started testing recipes and staging mock service in their garage. The Cerritos natives opened the first Yojie in nearby Artesia, not far from the flagship Goldilocks, and opened a fine-tuned version in Downtown Los Angeles last year. The third generation restaurateurs have filled nearly every role since childhood, including baker, cashier and waiter. Now, Michael, who still works at Goldilocks, handles Yojie’s finances and Mendrick controls operations. As Michael said, “We wanted to share with other people the experience we had, something interactive, something healthy, something different.” The Leelins want to expand Yojie to cities like San Diego, San Francisco and Las Vegas and believe they have a franchise-able model. “Why we’re building this restaurant, is not actually to be able to make a lot of money but to be able to help as many people as we can,” says Mendrick, “We want to develop our people, provide growth for our staff, and help the communities around us…the bigger we grow, the more people we can help.”

- 501 W. Olympic Blvd., Downtown, 213.988.8808, www.yojie.com

Follow us on:

SEARCH

• accommodations
• activities
• arts & culture
• dining
• nightlife
• shopping
• transportation
• visitor resources