Citrus: The restaurant is a no-show

I thought I’d go check out what was happening Tuesday night at Citrus at Social, now that Michel Richard’s Hollywood restaurant has a new chef (Omri Aflalo) and a revamped bistro menu.

When I called to make a reservation, no one answered the phone: I’ve been encountering a lot of that lately as restaurants cut costs in order to stay afloat. The phone message did say that the restaurant was open on Tuesdays. And so we set off, not worrying about the fact that we didn’t have a reservation. It’s a big place. How full could it be on a Tuesday night?

It turns out, not full at all.

The fact that there was no valet out front should have been the first clue. I chalked it up to more cost cutting. We pulled into the adjacent public parking lot beside my friend Rene’s car, paid the parking attendant $10 upfront and the three of us walked around the corner to Citrus’ entrance on Sunset Boulevard, only to find the door locked, the restaurant closed.

Great.

You’d think that if the restaurant is going to close on a day it's supposed to be open, somebody would at least change the phone message. I see this morning that its website has been updated to say dinner is served Thursday through Saturday, so I guess the closure was no anomaly. The restaurant has cut back to just three days a week: what a shame.

Citrus at Social, 6525 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles; (323) 337-9797; www.citrusatsocial.com

-- S. Irene Virbila

Photo credit: David Sprague / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Lena]

I received a call from the hostess, as well. She was very sweet, and changed our reservation to another night when we were free. She also said they would honor the dineLA menu for that date. It's LA, filmings happen all the time. I know, I'm in the industry. Many of the locations are booked last minute, so they may not have had much advance notice. I'm glad they took the time to call.

[Deborah O'Neill]

Dear Ms. Virbila

On behalf of the staff here at Social Hollywood, I apologize for our outgoing message misinformation on Tuesday. We have been closed this week, Tuesday through Thursday for a film shoot. I personally am so sorry as the voicemail mishap is only due to my own lack of technological precision.
As a multifaceted venue, we offer space for film shoots, catered events, from a complete buy-out premiere to the smallest private dinner. This does result in our restaurant Citrus closing to the public.
I am also sorry that we missed your call on Tuesday. We do have our sales staff and reservationists taking calls, as a personal touch is still a top priority to us. The phone was ringing all day with inquiries for dineLA and Valentines's Day as well as for our nightclub events.
We would be so grateful to make this inconvenience up to you and hope you will call us to make a reservation. We are open this Friday for dineLA, with a waitlist now and Saturday night, we offer our Citrus Twist menu. The dineLA menu will also be available in Citrus next week from Tues.-Friday, Feb. 3-Feb. 7th.
I truly hope to hear from you, my direct line is 323.337.9761. Also, thank you for bringing these things to our attention so we may check our voicemail and website. We only want to ensure a top guest experience!!

[Muhlyssa]

We had a reservation there for Tuesday night as well, to take advantage of DineLA. The hostess called us that day to tell us they'd be CLOSED for filming. They told us they'd honor DineLA menu/price anytime we wanted to go. Who knows what the real story is.

[Matt]

Wow, so much for dineLA?

[mattatouille]

woah, the venerable virbila being rebuffed by a restaurant? A releasing such juicy restaurant news? I like it. I'm going there Friday, thank you for the update.

I hope the kitchen's not in full-tank mode as that would be a shame. Jeffrey Chodorow and Michel Richard need to do something about it.