Chef Enrique Olvera’s hospitality group, Casamata, will head to the Westside again with a new seafood-focused sister restaurant to its Arts District modern Mexican destination, Damián. San Damián opens on Thursday, June 4, in the former Venice Atla space (a short-lived Olvera outpost of his New York restaurant of the same name). It brings a menu of mariscos from chef Chuy Cervantes that will feel right at home in the coastal neighborhood.
After Atla closed in September 2024, Olvera had no immediate plans to open something new in its place. But the restaurant group held onto the property as Olvera began slowly exploring options that might work for the beachy location and local Venice clientele. At the end of 2025, he approached Cervantes and general
manager Carlos Garcia (who will now step into a director role) about expanding Damián. “We told him that we really felt we were in a place to do that,” Cervantes says. By February 2026, San Damián was in active development.
“San Damián is going to be very much part of the umbrella of Damián that we’ve worked on for the past six years or so,” Cervantes says. Initially, Damián was meant to have more of a seafood bent, but with the molino on-site and the more casual Ditroit in the alley behind it, the menu instead began to revolve around masa. Still, the seed was planted, and as San Damián became a reality, Cervantes saw it as an opportunity to return to the original coastal Mexican inspiration. “Coming over here to the Westside of town, being closer to the beach, feeling a little bit more of the breezy vibes, we figured that we could finally dive into that seafood mariscos feel that we had originally intended for Damián,” Cervantes says.
San Damián’s menu opens with Kumamoto oysters on the half shell paired with turnip salsa and clams served alongside Persian cucumber and salsa macha. Ceviche highlights local rockfish from Ventura County and Santa Barbara sea urchin, pocked with pico de gallo made from local farmers’ market produce. “We love tradition,” Cervantes says. “We love simplicity. We love celebrating the ingredients themselves. A lot of what you’ll see here is true and traditional to most of the marisquerías in Mexico. We’re not trying to do anything new or different; we’re just really trying to highlight the ingredients.” Tostada de cangrejo, made with Dungeness crab, gets topped with cabbage slaw, avocado, and furikake, while tostada de atún introduces leeks, lemon cucumber, and shiro dashi.
Damián provides masa for the tortillas at San Damián to pair with dishes including kanpachi al pastor with pineapple butter and pescado asado with guacachile amarillo. While most of the menu centers seafood, two meat mains will be available on the opening menu: pollo frito with pasilla glaze, a popular fried chicken that Damián introduced on its brunch menu, and hanger steak carne asada. Cervantes says that, for the Casamata team, the pivot toward seafood feels particularly exciting. “I think if you asked all of the people involved in the restaurant what their favorite style of eating is, it’s marisquerías in Mexico,” he says. For dessert, find an orange-infused flan, churros, and fresas con crema with chantilly cream.
Sebastian Tollius, a veteran of Eleven Madison Park and Clemente Bar, runs the beverage program, which spans cocktails, wine, beer, tepache, and an agave list. Pair dinner with drinks like San Damián’s take on a Negroni with Condesa gin, shiso, and strawberry; a paloma with guava tepache and Topo Chico; or the house margarita with yuzu and sansho salt. Other options include the tequila-based Feliciano with tomato shio joki and queso cotija, and the Juventino with gin, chamomile, mezcal, mango, and clarified coconut. Tepache, a traditional fermented Mexican drink, comes flavored with pineapple and shisho or guava and hibiscus.
Mexico City–based design studio Taller ADG, updated the Atla space with new light fixtures, natural woods, and a woven ceiling. In contrast to the darker, more industrial Damián, San Damián feels more laid-back, reflecting its Venice surroundings. “It’s more minimal than Damián in some ways, but also a little bit more homey in the decorative aspect,” Cervantes says. Light streams in from the wall of windows that make up the restaurant’s entrance, giving the entire room an airy feel similar to its predecessor.
While Damián, with its numerous accolades, including a slot on the Michelin Guide, has become an Arts District destination, Cervantes hopes that San Damián will live as a place for its neighbors to gather. “We want to create a space for our neighbors to really feel like they can either come in for a nice dinner that could have that destination feel, or sit at our bar and have a cocktail and a beer,” Cervantes says.
As San Damián opens its doors, Cervantes looks forward to the challenge the restaurant presents, especially since seafood has such short windows of availability. “It’s going to force us to be more playful,” he says. “It’s going to force us to be a little bit quicker on our feet. And that’s something that I would love to take back to Damián as well. I would love for even the hugeness of that restaurant to feel light and fresh in the way that this kind of restaurant feels.”
Reservations for San Damián are available on Resy.
