Wine House Kitchen now open in Wine House on Santa Monica Boulevard
By Dolores Quintana
West LA has a new restaurant that was opened by long-time Los Angeles area restaurant mavens as reported by Eater Los Angeles. Wine House Kitchen opened in the final days of September in the same building where Wine House, a 47-year-old wine shop, has been for decades. Wine House Kitchen is located upstairs near Sawtelle Japantown. Wine House Kitchen will be open on Wednesday and Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
The site has hosted other restaurants in the past the wine bar Upstairs 2 which closed in 2019 is an example of that. The Knight family owns Wine House and Jim Knight took matters into his own hands and asked François Renaud. Renaud is the general manager of Viale dei Romani to open a restaurant in the space. While the opening of this new restaurant above Wine House was not possible during the last three years of the pandemic, it is now open.
The restaurant’s website gives some information about the new space and says, “Wine House Kitchen is a California Modern, wine-centric and cocktail driven restaurant, with a hint of Vietnamese influences. Nestled on top of The Wine House, WHO is an oasis in a tangle of concrete. Provided: Rock n’ Roll vibes, seasonal food, extensive cocktail menu, wine bottle & glass list playfully curated, beers on tap; all you need to bring is the party. Rock on” and is signed by Francois Renaud.
The chef in charge is Maiki Le, a former sous chef at Momed Beverly Hills and executive chef for Upstairs 2. Le has also opened a number of Belcampo Meat Company locations.
As for the beverages, Chris Grosso is in charge of the bar and his previous experience with Blind Barber, Viale dei Romani, and New York’s RPM Bar.
Renaud said, as quoted by Eater Los Angeles, “It was built to match Le’s food. Some are nearly extinct like the Negrette from Chateau Flotis in the French southwestern Fronton region. And there’s a lot of older vintages, like the 2013 Chateau Revelette Coteaux d’Aix en Provence which you don’t see much on [restaurant] wine lists these days.”
