Bar Stella opens at Sunset Junction in Silver Lake

Bar Stella, the bar attached to Silver Lake's Cafe Stella at Sunset Junction, has opened. Cafe Stella owner Gareth Kantner has created a Moroccan-inspired boite that channels "Casablanca," a respite from the bustle of Sunset Boulevard. A marble-topped bar is manned by white-jacketed bartenders, and the space is decorated with Moroccan poufs, brass lamps, African statuary, tall vases filled with hydrangeas and camellias, and a transporting painting of tropical birds. A small patio beyond the brass-framed windows is lined with a checkered floor and pillow-topped benches. 

As for the drinks: The $15 cocktail has arrived in Silver Lake. No cans of PBR here; the beers on tap include Stella Artois, Chimay Triple, Three Philosophers Quadrupel and Hitachino White Nest Ale ($8 to $14). An extensive collection of spirits   The cocktail menu lists the classic martini, Manhattan and old-fashioned as well as a mojito, Moscow Mule and a cocktail called Le Perou (Encanto single-vineyard pisco with fresh pineapple and lime (for $14 to $16).

It's pretty swank and is open on the weekend throughout the day, a swell Eastside spot for a few Sunday-afternoon expertly made margaritas. Especially if somebody else is buying. 

3932 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 666-0265. 

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-- Betty Hallock

Photo credit: Betty Hallock

New in Pasadena: Trattoria Neapolis Italian restaurant and bar

Trattoria Neapolis Italian restaurant and bar has opened in the middle of one of Pasadena's popular shopping districts on South Lake Avenue. Sandwiched between an Anthropologie clothing store and an Aaron Brothers, first-time restaurateur Perry Vidalakis' new spot is bringing the style and flare of an Italian piazza to the suburb.

Chef Bryant Wigger (Four Seasons Los Angeles) is turning out a mixed menu of traditional Italian and California market-driven cuisine featuring items such as the bistecca, a Wagyu flatiron steak with porcini BBQ sauce, roasted garlic gnocchi and smoked pork shoulder, and Wigger's take on tiramisu, made with house ladyfingers, mascarpone crema, roasted summer peaches and caramel. The kitchen houses a 7,000-pound Neapolitan wood-burning oven, used for making Neapolitan-style pizzas. 

The bar program boasts a curated list of cocktails by mixologist Vincenzo Marianella (Copa d'Oro) and a beer list by sommelier Christina Perozzi. The wine list is a mix of 50 bottles of wine from California and Italy, with nothing priced more than $50.

The restaurant space, designed by Hatch Design Group, is divided into two levels and various dining spaces. At the entrance is a light-filled garden room. The main dining room on the first floor consists of the bar and roomy booths, and at the back of the dining room are smaller tables, near the kitchen. On the second floor there is a balcony area that overlooks the first floor and a private wine room.

The restaurant is now serving dinner nightly from 5 p.m. but has a few plans in store for the coming months including a late-night menu at the bar until 2 a.m., lunch service beginning at 11 a.m., a to-go counter and a bottega.

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Photos, from top: View of the restaurant and bar from the balcony; the roasted garlic gnocchi. Credit: Frank Noack

Bobby Green's 1933 Group thinks big with Sassafras and Idle Hour

Bobby Green, the face behind the 1933 Group, which owns Bigfoot Lodge, Bigfoot West, Thirsty Crow, Oldfield's Liquor Room and the recently opened La Cuevita in Highland Park, is taking his theme-bar flair to Hollywood with a new Southern-style bar called Sassafras.

Scheduled to open sometime in July, Sassafras is Green's most ambitious project to date. To build it he dismantled an old Gothic home from Savannah, Ga., and reassembled it in the bar. When you enter you can see three sides of the home and you can actually walk inside and get comfortable.

The booze list will focus on barrel-aged cocktails and house-made sodas and there will always be free hard-boiled eggs. In addition, small bar snacks will be on the menu, including gumbo and cornmeal biscuit sliders with smoked ham and blackberry jam.

Once he's done with Sassafras, Green will jump straight into his first full restaurant endeavor in North Hollywood. It's located in the barrel-shaped former La Cana restaurant, which was originally opened in the 1940s and called the Idle Hour. Green intends to restore both its original name and its original old-school feel.

For more on Green and 1933, check out this nightlife story in Calendar.

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--Jessica Gelt

Photo: Bobby Green inside his new Highland Park tequila bar, LA Cuevita. Credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times

The Hermosillo brings craft beer and wine to Highland Park

The team behind cozy Bar Covell in Los Feliz has opened a new craft beer-and-wine bar in Highland Park called the Hermosillo. The new addition to the neighborhood, which is located in the former Hermosillo Club and is just a stone's throw from York Boulevard's other trendy bars, the York and Johnny's, makes for a trifecta of gentrified cool in the area. (I know, I know ... it just keeps spreading.)

The new Hermosillo kept the old Hermosillo's sign, which features a smokin' hottie in minimal clothing. It's a canny decision that adds a bit of grit to the bar, which is otherwise pretty sleek with polished concrete floors; mustard-colored banquettes; a flat screen TV turned to sports; a sparse bar and a smattering of old Mexican movie posters.

The bartenders are friendly and knowledgeable and happy to dole out a few tastes from the list of 18 red wines (mostly from Mexico, South America, Spain and California) and a comparable amount of white varieties.

The beer list is small but good (Eagle Rock, Stone and North Coast Brewing Co.'s are all represented) and projected behind the bar by a blurry old-school projector.

There's no food at this point, but when I was there (with my mom -- yes, you can!) the Grilled Cheese Truck was parked beside the wide-open windows out front and the bartenders circulated menus to every customer.

The Hermosillo, 5125 York Blvd., Highland Park. (323) 739-6459; www.facebook.com/thehermosillo.

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Tom Bergin's soft opening tonight

After a lengthy closure and lots of anticipation about the outcome of a change of ownership and significant renovation, the historic Mid-City Irish pub Tom Bergin's will soft open tonight (Thursday).

Owners Brandon Boudet and Warner Ebbink (Little Dom's, 101 Coffee Shop) worked hard to maintain the bar's classic dark-wood look, which dates back to 1936, and brought on mixologists Marcos Tello and Aidan Demarest to craft a lengthy menu of Irish whiskeys and imported beers.

Read all about the new menu and vibe in this sneak peek at the place before it opened.

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-- Jessica Gelt

Photo: Brandon Boudet, left, and Warner Ebbink at Tom Bergin's. Credit: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times

Royal Clayton's Pub to reopen in downtown LA

Royal Clayton’s, a favorite downtown watering hole that served chilled pints and traditional fish and chips, just reached a deal to reopen at the Spring Arcade Building at 6th and Spring streets.

The pub closed its doors in 2010 after being open for four years in the Arts District.  The new Royal Clayton’s will be replacing an electronics store on the Spring Street side of the space.  According to co-owner Tony Gower in the Los Angeles Downtown News, the company is hoping to reopen the pub by the end of the year although the official timeline is still undecided. 

The owners would like the new Royal Clayton's to be as close as possible to the original.  However, if the city permits, they would like to add outdoor seating.

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Photo Credit: Beatrice de Gea/ Los Angeles Times

3 Events: Marino's mammas face off; Golden Road; butchery class

Naples vs. Venice: On Thursday, Marino Ristorante is taking the Naples-vs.-Venice battle to the kitchen, with Mamma Maria Marino representing Napoli and Mamma Luciana Ongaro representing Venezia. The two will prepare a six-course menu that features side-by-side Neapolitan and Venetian classics. Maria helped her late husband Ciro re-create Neapolitan recipes at Marino and raised their three children in the restaurant (Rosanna, the CFO at Marino; Mario Jr., the general manager and maître’d; and Sal, executive chef at Marino and chef-owner of Il Grano). Luciana, the daughter of a prominent chef in Venice, inspired her son Stefano (Rosanna Marino’s husband) to open the erstwhile All’Angelo. Examples from the menu: Manila clams gratin with garlic aioli (Naples) and salted cod crostini (Venice); double-wide rigatoni stuffed with veal, beef and pork (Naples) and thick Venetian spaghetti with pulled duck (Venice); and rolled sirloin with raisins, eggs and pine nuts in tomato sauce (Naples) and milk-braised Niman Ranch pork (Venice). $65 per person (includes a glass of Prosecco upon arrival) and $35 optional wine pairing. 6001 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 466-8812, www.marinorestaurant.net. 

Golden Road party: Golden Road Brewing is hosting a double celebration on Sunday, the launch of its pub and its brand-new 16-ounce cans. The pub will be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. with chef Adam Levoe grilling burgers (vegan and non-vegan) on the outdoor patio, served with a can of Golden Road beer, either the Point the Way IPA or Golden Road Hefeweizen, for $10. The full menu will also be available, along with draft beer options. 5430 W. San Fernando Road, Los Angeles, (213) 537-4655, www.goldenroadbrewing.com.

Class at Huntington Meats: Suzanne Tracht, chef-owner of Jar, is collaborating with Huntington Meats at its 3rd Street Farmers Market shop for a series of classes on butchery and cooking. A class on beef takes place on Sunday. Huntington’s butchers, John Escobedo and Robert Ore, will present an “up close and personal” class, and Tracht will present a cooking demo and discuss how to best use the various cuts of meats. The upcoming schedule includes pig on Feb. 26, lamb on March 25 and beef cuts for spring on April 22. Topics for January: breaking a side of beef, portioning primal cuts, and grading to grinding. Learn how to prepare beef cuts in winter, including short ribs, briskets and roasts. The price is $65 per guest. 6 to 8 p.m. Reserve by calling Huntington Meats at (323) 938-5383. 6333 W. 3rd St. at the Original Farmers Market, Los Angeles.

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Photo: Golden Road Brewing. Credit: Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times

SBE to open Papaya King, the Sayers Club, Mercato di Vetro Italian restaurant and a lounge called the Library in the Redbury Hotel

 
On Wednesday, SBE officially announced its buyout of Hollywood nightlife king David Judaken's Syndicate Hospitality, a move that made SBE founder Sam Nazarian the most powerful operator of clubs on the West Coast.

The story that ran in Wednesday's paper also highlighted a number of new restaurants and lounges that SBE will roll out in the coming months: a West Coast location of New York hot-dog stand Papaya King, a live music venue called the Sayers Club, an Italian restaurant called Mercato di Vetro and a second-floor lounge at the Redbury Hotel called the Library.

Nazarian so loves Papaya King that he bought the restaurant's West Coast franchise rights in order to open this first outlet, as well as outlets in Nevada, Arizona and Miami. And to tease the new location, Nazarian plans to roll out a Papaya King food truck to dole out hot dogs across the city.

"Who doesn't love a hot dog?" said Nazarian. "Papaya King was the first juice bar in the country. Babe Ruth named it. It has a tremendous history."

Those visiting the Papaya King will receive an added treat when they realize that they can walk through the restaurant's kitchen (Nazarian was inspired by La Esquina in New York) to enter a live music venue called the Sayers Club that will probably open in mid-to-late May.

Burger of the week at the Standard; Cafe Entourage opens; K2 begins dinner service

Micah Fields -- the new chef at the Restaurant at the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles -- recently introduced a "Burger of the Week" to the menu. So what distinguishes Fields' burgers from the downtown burger pack? Exotic meats including wild boar, lamb and (gasp!) bear.

Here’s what you can expect for the rest of the month: March 7 to 11, Colorado lamb burger; March 14 to 18, Smokey the Bear;  March 21 to 25 , shrimp burger.

The Restaurant at the Standard, 550 S. Flower St., L.A. (213) 439-3030; www.standardhotels.com.

Cafe Entourage, the new 7,000-square-foot restaurant at Hollywood and Vine that we wrote about last month, officially opens on Friday. Now the neighborhood will have a 24-hour dining destination from Thursday through Saturday. The comfort-food menu includes lobster spaghetti, baked chicken, steak-and-eggs, pepperoni pizza and tuna salad. There is also a full bar.

Cafe Entourage, 1600 Vine St., Hollywood; (323) 467-4200.

K2, the Cajun-leaning restaurant that opened late last year in the old Eat Well space on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake, has brought in a new chef and will begin dinner service on Tuesday, with late-night service to start soon after that. The new chef, Chris Barnett (208 Rodeo, Hotel Bel-Air, Stateside, Provecho), brings with him a sustainable sensibility and is introducing a host of new Southern-tinged menu items including barbecued mussels with chili-garlic french bread; fried green tomato salad with goat cheese and arugula; spicy buttermilk-marinated Jidori fried chicken with edamame succotash and herbed cream gravy; and cake doughnut bread pudding with rum caramel sauce.

K2, 3916 W. Sunset Blvd., L.A. (323) 662-7698; www.kokomo.com.

--Jessica Gelt

Photo: The wild boar burger with sweet cherry tomato jam, a bacon-speckled bun and jalapeno aioli is served at the Restaurant at the Standard. Credit: The Standard.

Public School 612 opens Tuesday [Updated]

 
Downtown Los Angeles is getting serious about beer.

There's Spring Street Bar with its more than two dozen beers on tap; the lengthy Old World list offered at Wurstkuche; Angel City Brewery's new beer garden; and now a craft-beer-centric bar and restaurant called Public School 612, which opens Tuesday on Flower Street.

The place is adjacent to -- as well as a sister restaurant to -- Daily Grill. It's the work of that restaurant's parent company, Grill Concepts, which also manages and licenses the Grill on the Alley.

Public School 612 seats 70 and offers gastrobub-style food and a list of craft beer from around the world. The beer-and-beverage program is overseen by Beer Chick Hallie Beaune, (thebeerchicks.com) co-author of "The Naked Pint," who has curated a list of 22 beers on tap, eight bottles and four cans. She's also prepping a cocktail program. 

The menu is small, featuring 12 to 15 items -- all with beer pairings in mind. Offerings include: Dragoons Irish Stout short ribs with horseradish mashed potatoes and caramelized onion au jus; Colorado lamb burger with tomato cranberry jam, arugula and brie; and peanut butter and jelly cookies with milk.

Public School 612, 612 S. Flower St., L.A., www.publicschool612.com.

[For the record, 1:43 p.m.: A previous version of this post said that Public School 612 was having its soft-opening Tuesday. This is its regular opening.]

-- Jessica Gelt

Photos, from top: The taps at Public School 612; the lamb burger. Credit: Public School 612