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Hatfield’s plans to move into Red Pearl space

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Now that Red Pearl Kitchen has closed, the question is: Who will be moving in? It’s the Hatfield’s duo, Quinn and Karen Hatfield.

‘We’re in the process of selling our space and moving,’ says Karen Hatfield, co-owner and pastry chef. ‘We wanted to expand to a larger space and take Hatfield’s to the next level, with a larger restaurant, larger menu, lunch and dinner, seven days. We were trying to find ourselves a home for the next 20 years.’

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For months the word on the street has been that the Hatfields have been looking for a larger venue and had been eyeing the Red Pearl location on the corner of Melrose and Citrus avenues. The restaurant was orginally Michel Richard’s Citrus and was then home to Alex Scrimgeour’s Alex, followed by Meson G, brought to us by Tim and Liza Goodell. After a couple of years (and a couple of chefs), the Goodells in 2006 turned Meson G into Red Pearl Kitchen, part of their mini-chain of pan-Asian restaurants. It opened with eye-candy valets, who seemed to disappear after it was apparent they weren’t helping to draw diners, and a new bright-bright-bright red exterior. (How many coats of paint will it take to cover that?)

The Hatfields moved to L.A. from San Francisco in ’06 and settled into the location on Beverly Boulevard, a fewer-than-50-seat restaurant where Quinn Hatfield oversees a focused market-driven menu and Karen Hatfield creates the desserts. The Red Pearl Kitchen space can seat more than 100.

‘It was good for us to start small,’ Karen Hatfield says. ‘We’ve learned everything and we’ve got it down. It’s charming and a lot of people felt that. We’ll definitely be trying to maintain that level of intimacy and charm’ in the new location. A summer opening is planned.

-- Betty Hallock

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