Altadena and its vibrant restaurant community have been well documented in the aftermath of the Eaton Fire that devastated the neighborhood; the Pacific Palisades has, so far, had less of a comeback , with fewer rebuilding permits issued to businesses.
In the Palisades, though many residential buildings are in full rebuild, with construction crews scattered throughout the seaside borough, many families have opted not to return.
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In the immediate aftermath of the Palisades Fire, LA chef, podcast host, and owner of the footwear brand Snibbs Daniel Shemtob was one of many restaurant workers who immediately mobilized to feed victims and first responders of the wildfires, partnering with World Central Kitchen to provide meals from his food truck, the Lime Truck. Having lost his own home in the fire, he purchased a new one in eastern Beverly Hills, near the border of West Hollywood.
Now Shemtob has reasons to feel hopeful about the Palisades.
Two new restaurants — Alphabet Bar & Grill, from nightlife group h.wood, and Nancy Silverton’s Spacca Tutto — have opened inside real estate developer Rick Caruso’s Palisades Village. The upscale shopping center, which features a yet-to-reopen Erewhon and a handful of high-end luxury boutiques, plus a still-open Blue Ribbon Sushi and Angelini Ristorante, was protected by a private firefighting force during the Palisades Fire. Shemtob told me Silverton’s arrival in particular marks a new chapter for the Palisades: “I think [Spacca Tutto] is epic for the neighborhood. I think it brings hope and gives momentum, which I think is really important to build culture.”
Malibu’s less flashy but almost equally wealthy neighbor, Pacific Palisades has long been one of the best places to live in Los Angeles, if you can afford it. (For a brief time, I had access via a college friend whose parents had a house perched in the hills.) Even before the fires, the only negative: the paucity of good restaurants. You’re better off scooting over to Brentwood or Santa Monica.
The Palisades wildfire destroyed over 6,800 buildings and killed 12 people, making it one of the worst natural disasters in LA history. Many restaurants were destroyed, though the mostly residential area lost more homes than commercial buildings. One of my favorite restaurants, the Reel Inn, is gone; longtime favorite Vittorio’s is rebuilding and currently operating out of a food truck; Cinque Terre West relocated to Venice.
The owner of Alphabet Bar & Grill, prolific nightlife group h.wood, made its name with celebrity hangouts and recently gained some culinary mojo with its Vegas expansion of Delilah (a supper club par excellence). Alphabet boasts former Otium chef Timothy Hollingsworth, who has been on a tear lately, opening restaurants in Long Island, Washington D.C.’s Georgetown, and, soon, another 200-plus seater in Atlanta. Occupying the space that was Hank’s (named after Caruso’s late father), Alphabet plants its flag as a ritzy all-day restaurant. The menu reads like a snoozy but upscale hotel restaurant, but in reality the food is unnecessarily excellent.
The grilled shrimp topped with sliced chiles packs a serious heat that made me, a notorious spice addict, sweat profusely (which I enjoyed). The Cabbage Crunch is essentially Burmese tea leaf salad without tea leaves, but with the same salty-sweet-tangy punch. Every table had an order of the chicken Caesar wrap — at “just” $21, not bad for the neighborhood. (Heck, Erewhon’s, just a few steps away, costs $18 and doesn’t come with fries on the side.) The glorious, golden brown, uniformly juicy rotisserie chicken is worthy of a Thomas Keller disciple. (Hollingsworth was chef de cuisine at the French Laundry for years.) The ambience reads Polo Lounge or Palm Steakhouse, albeit more Disneyfied. Alphabet Bar & Grill would be a superb addition to literally any neighborhood, but I’ve seen virtually zero chatter about it.
Spacca Tutto, on the other hand, has been buzzed about from the start, thanks in part to a huge preview lunch that brought over a majority of the local food media (including me) in early October. Caruso showed up to explain how he basically offered the restaurant to Silverton in a handshake deal. Silverton beamed, and why not? The rather fetching, Italianate space, lined with burgundy, black, and white marble, has a baby grand piano, dark-red leather seating, and a potent air of Old World luxury. It’s actually much more beautiful and pleasant than Chi Spacca, Silverton’s steakhouse that inspired this sequel. I spoke with Silverton last week, and she said, “I never really knew it was such a tight-knit community, and they’ve been very welcoming. They say how much the Palisades needed this kind of restaurant.”
Foodwise, Spacca Tutto is unimpeachable. The highlights from a $360 follow-up lunch in which two of us over-ordered: the beefsteak tomato salad; artichoke dip with fried Ritz crackers (brilliant); Chi Spacca’s signature focaccia di recco, redolent of excellent olive oil; Dal Rae-style picanha steak smothered in bacon, scallions, and lemon zest; and a righteously loaded baked potato. The menu is more expansive, more accessible, and more available — Spacca Tutto is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week — than the Melrose chophouse. The wood-fired meats were properly seared and even smoky like Texas barbecue. Spacca Tutto is a winner, and apparently dinner reservations are booked weeks out. (Lunch remains easy to walk into.) Silverton said she wants it to be the kind of neighborhood restaurant you could come in more than once a week, and with sandwiches and salads for lunch in the $20s, it’s not inconceivable.
Caruso is clearly invested in the neighborhood amenities returning, and in Spacca Tutto and Alphabet Bar & Grill helping the Pacific Palisades feel whole again. Still, Shemtob and other sources caution it could take 10 years for the area to return to its pre-wildfire population. But restaurants have a funny way of projecting optimism, perhaps irrationally so. Over in Altadena, the vibes at places like Betsy, Miya, and Good Neighbor Bar remind locals that third spaces are here to provide a balm amid the empty lots and constant sounds of reconstruction.
On the lawn outside Spacca Tutto, folks tap on laptops or take phone calls, parents chase their kids around, and teenagers gossip over ice cream cones. You could stroll a while through the village before seeing the ruins of a former bank building and dozens of other empty lots waiting for insurance payouts or rebuilding permits. The area won’t feel normal for years, most likely. Maybe once that Erewhon reopens in early 2027, it’ll feel like the Pacific Palisades is finally returning to itself.
