One of L.A.’s most acclaimed restaurants just returned in a new space with high ambitions
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For two brief years, in-the-know L.A. diners gathered around a small U-shaped counter hidden within José Andrés’ now-closed restaurant the Bazaar to witness chef Aitor Zabala craft whimsical, avant-garde creations at Somni, one of the country’s most notable fine-dining experiences. Caviar bumps came served on mannequin hands. “Tunahawk” fastened the fish to the edge of a tomahawk-like cleaver. Deconstructed ingredients were shaped into cows and beets and flowers.
L.A. Times Food critic Bill Addison called Zabala’s 20-plus courses “the headiest heights of luxury dining” and Somni appeared on the L.A. Times 101 list in 2018 and 2019. It achieved two Michelin stars and a “discovery” accolade from the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Then, almost as quickly as it rose to prominence, the restaurant within a restaurant closed in 2020 after the SLS Hotel terminated its contract with Andrés’ ThinkFoodGroup.
The city thought it had lost Somni forever. Then, in 2022, Zabala returned with news: He would reopen the lauded tasting-menu restaurant, this time as the sole chef-proprietor, in a new home in West Hollywood. After years of renovations and delays, the reborn Somni debuted late last month.
Critic Bill Addison reviews Somni at the SLS Beverly Hills.
Demand was so high that roughly five minutes after reservations opened all spots were booked, and they remain filled through January. Although a number of new customers nabbed these reservations, Zabala says many of the first diners to appear were guests of his previous Somni.
“It’s been beautiful that they were waiting for us to come back,” the chef says. “We put in so much effort to be back and we are really, really proud to be in the city.”
Andrés, the renowned chef and humanitarian, first persuaded a young Zabala to leave Spain’s famed El Bulli in 2007 and help develop the Bazaar in the SLS Hotel just outside Beverly Hills. Zabala returned to El Bulli after Bazaar was up and running, but moved back to L.A. in 2010 to help Andrés open Saam, the tasting-menu predecessor to Somni, which appeared in the same space in 2018.
The acclaimed tasting menu restaurant is expected to make its surprise return in summer 2023 in West Hollywood.
At the new Somni, which means “dream” in Catalan, the dishes are still light and playful, but the menu is entirely new.
Savory meringues, for instance, made an appearance at the previous Somni, but at Somni 2.0, Zabala and his team are fully leaning into them. They’re emulsifying, drying and shaping them into more whimsical figures, such as a seaweed meringue resembling a fish, which serves as a vessel for smoked butter and caviar.
“We were not looking [to make] a new technique or something like that,” Zabala says of the new Somni menu. “I will call it an evolution from the past and the techniques we know and the techniques we use and the techniques we learn, but we were never looking to try to find the new thing.”
Still, he can’t stop innovating. Although Zabala previously used steamed egg yolks, here at Somni the chefs make pasta from nothing but yolks, eschewing flour and water by simply but precisely steaming the eggs spread into a thin layer for bouncy pasta-like sheets. There’s more technology being employed in the whimsy too, such as 3-D printing, where tomatoes that appear as a kind of paper are fully edible.
Another thing that has changed is the feel of the restaurant. Where the old Somni was closeted away inside the SLS Hotel, the new Somni almost feels as though it’s hidden through a secret garden. Behind a gate that opens onto a long walkway, you’ll find a trio of buildings and a softly lighted patio. Cloud-like sculptures hang from the trees. Immediately to your left is a private dining room and the wine cellar. Ahead and to the right is a welcome reception with canapés such as thinly sliced imported Spanish ham, and the patio for easing into the meal. Beyond is the kitchen and production building. Finally, between the two structures is the dining room: an amber-glowing rectangular space where the restaurant’s mascot-like rainbow prismatic bust of a bull overlooks guests from the corner.
Whereas the original Somni boasted 10 seats around a fairly open kitchen, now 14 seats rim the edges of long, curved tables that overlook a counter where chefs place the finishing touches on their ornate food shapes, the main kitchen now just out of view.
Zabala toured more than 60 locations before finding the former Donna Karan retail storefront and flower shop that is now Somni. But the space lacked the infrastructure for a restaurant and required lengthy buildouts, new plumbing and other operational necessities such as oven hoods and new air conditioners. The final multibuilding layout, Zabala says, was essentially constructed “from zero, from ground.” Most days, he says, he watched over the construction site with the architects and contractors as tractors razed structures and brought the patio to life.
Chef Aitor Zabala of Somni, José Andrés’ Beverly Hills restaurant, shares his recipes for Spain’s most popular dishes, gambas al ajillo and pan con tomate.
As the assembly wore on, the chef popped up with a dinner series in Korea and began planning the details: What napkins would the new Somni use? At what intervals would they send in staff to clean?
“We took the time to build it better, and think it better in the space,” he says. “I will say the year was challenging. Exciting, but challenging at the same time.”
In one of the three structures, a new wine cellar harbors more than 300 bottles primarily overseen by wine director Caroline Costarella (formerly of San Francisco’s Lazy Bear) and general manager Daniel Gorlas, a Per Se alum. They worked with Zabala to build a program inspired by the chef’s history: Roughly 80% of the wine list is sourced from Spain and California, marrying his old roots and the new.
“Great wine cellars are everywhere in the world,” Zabala says. “You can be in Tokyo, you can be in L.A., you can be in New York, you can be anywhere but it doesn’t mean nothing if it’s not a meaningful situation.”
The wine pairings are now offered in two tracks: the Arrels, translating to “roots” in Catalan, especially highlights the ties between Spain and California and is priced at $225. The Calafia, named for the fictional warrior queen, pours wines that focus on vintages and the nuances of their terroir, sourcing from beyond Spain and California, at a cost of $415.
The cost for the tasting menu increased from Somni’s original iteration as well. Once $280, the price is currently set at $495 without pairings. Larger parties can book the private dining room for $995 per person, which includes beverage pairings and books the space for the entire evening. In a 2022 interview with The Times, Zabala said he expected the new Somni’s price to increase; since then, local and statewide legislation raised the minimum wage and inflation jumped, boosting costs even further.
Critic Bill Addison returns to Vespertine, an out-there tasting-menu restaurant that could be equally exhilarating and maddening. Now reopened after four years, is it worth the splurge?
“Prices increased everywhere, the cost has increased everywhere,” he recently said. “We are located in the second city with the highest wages in the United States — West Hollywood — and everything is more expensive. … I am sure people can be surprised with $495, but I still believe gastronomy at a higher level is a cheap luxury compared with other luxuries. With clothing, I don’t know if [it] give[s] you the same emotions [as] to eat.”
High-end tasting menus are increasingly appearing in Los Angeles across price points. In early December Seline debuted from Pasjoli and former Dialogue chef David Beran. This summer Vespertine reopened after years of closure and next year, Daniel Patterson — lately of Alta Adams and Locol but formerly of San Francisco’s Coi — is set to return to fine dining and open a new tasting-menu restaurant with business partner Keith Corbin.
In a tough restaurant economy, L.A. chefs are opening ambitious restaurants.
Someday, Zabala says, he might offer a second Somni format, possibly a shorter menu at a lower price for those who want to experience the restaurant. Fine dining is seeing a resurgence and, if possible, he’d like his to be accessible — but still a luxury.
Somni is at 9045 Nemo St., West Hollywood. Open Wednesday to Sunday with seatings at 5:30 and, in the private dining room, 7 p.m.
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