SSean Brock has embarked on a pivotal reset of his West Hollywood restaurant. In August 2025, the James Beard Award–winning chef opened Darling, where he stepped away from his Southern roots and fully embraced California ingredients and cooking. Though
the Husk owner was lured by the state’s bounty and the opportunity to create a completely different kind of menu, he recently adjusted Darling to apply those same farmers market hauls to a familiar Southern lens, recapturing his appreciation of Lowcountry cooking and his Appalachian roots.
The decision didn’t come easy for Brock, whom I interviewed one year ago, days before Darling opened. He showed me Darling’s custom live-fire grills and California’s white and red oak, which he had obsessed over for months. Brock, who loves Los Angeles and splits his residence between here and Tennessee, spent his time studying Southern California’s culture, history, and ingredients, especially the local produce, livestock, and products. Everything felt new to Brock, who wanted to shape Darling with a seasonal farmers’ market-driven menu that felt familiar to Los Angeles diners. “I convinced myself that no one would be excited about Southern food. It didn’t take long to realize how interested and enthusiastic Angelenos are about it,” he says.
“In the first few weeks, guests asked why we didn’t have grits and cornbread,” Brock tells me now, a year on from the initial debut of the restaurant. “By October, I started trickling in some Southern ingredients and stories. When talking with my team about those changes, it rekindled a fire inside me, and I found joy that I hadn’t felt in a while.”
That joy feels evident in Darling’s Texas deer skewers with smoked bacon, served alongside a Southern pickled specialty, chow chow. Brock uses his grandmother’s cornbread recipe paired with Ojai Pixie tangerine marmalade, while deviled eggs get topped with bluefin tuna belly and sansho Japanese chiles. Brock and chef Ben Norton created a shaved country ham dish with apple butter and lemon thyme. Darling’s abalone dish has evolved into perloo, a Lowcountry-inspired rice stew with stem lettuce and confit egg yolk. Carolina gold rice has become a mainstay, as well as sides like succotash and grits with an herby mascarpone cheese. Brock and Norton also reconsidered Darling’s meat strategy. “It’s been fun rethinking what barbecue can be with one foot in the South and another in California,” says Brock.
For weekend brunch, the Darling team will serve rockfish and grits, buttermilk biscuits, and fried chicken from Brock’s cookbook, Heritage. The chicken gets steeped in a tea and buttermilk brine and prepared with a blend of five different cooking fats. Brock hasn’t offered okra on any of his menus for some time, but found a rarer varietal from the Santa Monica Farmers Market for Darling. For dessert, the riff on banana pudding still has classic Nilla Wafers but with a juicy base substitution: mangos.
Brock was born in Virginia’s coal country but spent most of his professional life living in or opening restaurants in Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina. When catching up this week, he talked to me extensively about Lowcountry foodways. But he also acknowledged seeing these traditions with fresh eyes. “There are so many micro-cuisines in the South,” says Brock. “I spent so many years in Charleston and am still trying to understand it. To me, Lowcountry is a combination of two things: the geographic realities of where people are and the cultural influence of what’s around you. It’s in the same traditions of Gullah Geechee, the soul and backbone of West Africa, with a lot of French and Native American foodways.”
Darling also has a new bar director who started in May. Marea and LA Cha Cha Chá veteran Jairo Moreno developed an almost entirely new selection of cocktails. The Marigny No. 2 is a fun blend of the West Coast and South with Mexican gin, prickly pear, elderflower, hoja santa, and an Italian aperitivo.
It’s been quite a 2026 for chefs. In late May, Alta chef Keith Corbin also hit reset at his West Adams restaurant, which previously held a strong soul food lens and now nods more strongly to foodways from West Africa, Asia, and beyond. Though resets are not uncommon in the restaurant community, the transformations at Darling and Alta stand out. “Being able to translate Lowcountry into Darling is really something for me; since having this realization, Darling’s menu process is very different. And now, we can tell a different Southern story,” says Brock.
More for the table:
- Eater Los Angeles’s deputy editor, Rebecca Roland, covered the Michelin Guide California ceremony last night. There is much to take in with some restaurants increasing (and losing) their star designations. Find her full Michelin coverage here, as well as the Bib Gourmand recipients announced Thursday morning. Eater correspondent Matthew Kang was on the ground in San Diego for the event and shared his predictions plus some thoughtful analysis (he wasn’t too far off on some).
- Over a decade ago, I attended my first Art Beyond The Glass. Every year, Los Angeles bartenders showcase their inventiveness at the annual event; it’s been incredible to see their work with paintings, photography, live music, and poetry. If you need another reason to attend, proceeds get donated to a local arts-based nonprofit. This year’s festivities will be held at the iconic Catch One on June 28 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and tickets are still available.
- I can’t hide my obsession with Melrose Hill’s new Bangladeshi destination, Roshona Bilash. My friend and colleague took me there, and I cannot stop thinking about the lamb shank smothered in curry.
