Just weeks after opening bakery Matilda’s in a restored 1940s administrative building at the Santa Monica Airport, restaurateur Sean Martin will debut his next project, Stiletto, on October 21. Named after the Douglas X-3 Stiletto jet housed at the neighboring
airport museum, the restaurant centers on local produce and live-fire cooking from Ireland-born chef Patrick Powell, whose resume includes now-closed Allegra, Chiltern Firehouse, and One Club Row in London.
“The term we’re using is modern steakhouse, but sometimes I think it’s almost underselling it, calling it a steakhouse,” Powell says. “There’s a lot more to it.” The menu opens with a Matilda’s baguette with butter; a briny Ortiz anchovy and Gordal olive gilda; and steak tartare dressed with a mayonnaise-based emulsion of ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and Tabasco. “It’s pretty classic, but I think it’s as good as a tartar can get for me, and it’s exactly how I want to eat it,” Powell says. Another of Powell’s favorites on the menu is the pickled jalapeño and Comté gougères, filled with a Comté custard. “It’s something that’s got a lot of finesse to it, but then it also kind of tastes like the nacho cheese sauce you get at the cinema on your Doritos or nachos or whatever,” he says. “I just think it’s good fun.”
Sourcing from farmers markets has been an important tenet of Stiletto’s menu since the start; currently, 70 percent of the produce on the menu comes from local markets. “We’re getting two deliveries in a week, and the quality of it is insane,” Powell says. “You don’t have that in the UK, so it’s so good.” The fruits and vegetables get highlighted in dishes such as bluefin tuna with melon, cucumber, and mint; barbecued leek with crab, lemon, and hazelnut; and grilled hispi cabbage with Cantabrian chile butter.
Larger dishes at Stiletto span a New York strip and bone-in rib-eye made with beef from Rosewood Ranch in Texas, which raises cattle that are a cross between Black Angus and wagyu. Peri peri chicken arrives with preserved lemon, herbs, and aioli, while pork schnitzel gets crowned with gorgonzola and paired with a beer-and-mustard sauce. Other mains include prime rib with braised cabbage, roasted carrots, and crispy potatoes; steak au poivre; and baked gnocchi with Taleggio. For dessert, find a sticky toffee pudding, a strawberry-topped pavlova, lemon ice with raspberry, and chocolate mousse. Stiletto’s cocktail options include a dedicated martini menu, along with pints of Guinness, wine, and more. “A lot of the [menu at Stiletto] reads kind of simple,” Powell says. “One thing I always like when cooking is to kind of undersell something and overdeliver, but also everything should be approachable.”
Stiletto was designed by Barbara O’Rourke of Bells and Whistles, who also worked on Providence and San Diego’s Jeune et Jolie. The interior seats 100 in the tall-ceilinged main dining room, plus another 38 at the sleek marble bar. An outdoor terrace, set to open in summer 2027, will seat another 80.
With the opening, Powell is most looking forward to a buzzing dining room and becoming a place neighbors can drop in to regularly for a martini and a bar-exclusive burger or a full sit-down dinner. “I think you realize when you’re getting older as a chef and have restaurants and whatnot that the most important thing is a room full of people having a good time,” he says. “That means you’ve done your job, right?”
