The Los Angeles restaurant scene has been in acute crisis thanks to everything from the Trump administration’s tariffs and Hollywood’s business woes to rising labor costs and the normalization of GLP-1s. Yet the K-shaped economy has simultaneously nurtured a notable new generation of fine-dining rooms, with the city witnessing a renaissance of tasting-menu-oriented spaces, from Kato, Hayato and Baroo to Somni, Seline, Ki and Lielle.
The latest entrant is Jacaranda on Melrose Ave. in Hancock Park, catty-corner to Nancy Silverton’s Osteria Mozza and Jordan Kahn’s Meteora. The 30-seat restaurant offers a single 10-course seating each evening. ($295 per person, not including beverage pairings.) It marks the return after a long absence of the chef Daniel Patterson to the New American modernist cuisine that sealed his reputation — James Beard award, multiple Michelin stars — at San Francisco’s since-shuttered Coi.
Most Angelenos familiar with Patterson’s work in L.A. know him for Locol, his socially conscious fast-food concept with chef Roy Choi, and more recently the California-style soul food spot Alta Adams. Now, with Jacaranda, he’s locked back into conceptual experimentalism with everything from stuffed morels to roasted kelp. The goal is “making things taste very intensely like themselves,” Patterson says. “There’s a lot of work in that. Complex to do, simple to appreciate.”
Soft tofu with fresh seaweed and caviar at Jacaranda.
Wonho Frank Lee
His partner in the venture is wife, Sarah Lewitinn, a former DJ and music industry impresario who helped break acts like My Chemical Romance and The Killers. Jacaranda began as a pop-up dinner party in their home, and Lewitinn — who’s also long worked in marketing and events — now presides as the dining room’s offbeat grand dame, especially in sparking unfiltered conversations at the communal table. “Oddly enough, I’ve found that if you slip and say ‘fuck,’ it gets people to chill the fuck out,” she laughs.
“There’s an element of chaos with Sarah that I love,” Patterson explains. “Fine dining is so much about control, and we’re super-serious about the cooking. But what we’re trying to accomplish here — create this mom-and-pop restaurant that happens to be serving high-level food — benefits from her instinct to strip away inherited expectations.”
One area of creative tension for the couple: The soundtrack, a largely nostalgic mix that runs from Björk to Elliott Smith. “Daniel and I have clashed,” Lewitinn says. “I want to have a lot of Hole’s ‘Live Through This.’ He finds that to be a bit aggressive. So, I’ve been playing ‘Celebrity Skin’ instead. It’s a vibe.”
The dining room at Jacaranda in Hancock Park.
Rob Stark
