SANT’OLINA PHOTOS COURTESY OF WONHO FRANK LEE + KATHRYN BALLAY
Sant’olina’s stunning dining room
+Haute Spots The must-try restaurants of 2021 BY LAURA SCHREFFLER
MEROIS
NUSR-ET
Beverly Hills residents blinked and missed the quiet, almost secretive opening of Nusret Gökçe’s 90210 Nusr-Et outpost. It’s the fifth U.S. restaurant and 24th global eatery from the man best known as Salt Bae, and his Golden Triangle location doesn’t disappoint. Guests enter the former Citizen space through a distinctive red door framed with Turkish tiles inspired by Gökçe’s homeland, where a portrait of the chef is waiting to welcome them and where those who favor social media as much as he does can share their “one and only” Nusr-Et experience. Inside, a modern space flanked by an open kitchen, a meat locker of “meat art pieces” and a selection of works by famous Turkish photographer Ara Güler that pay tribute to Hollywood are on full display, providing equitably aesthetic visuals for the restaurant’s key audience, the jet-setting entertainment crowd. (Though of course, no sight is more exciting to the L.A. elite than the meat-cutting, salt-throwing Salt Bae himself.) 184 -88 N Canon Dr, Beverly Hills (310) 921-5935
Find fabulous fare and an al fresco ambiance at the Beverly Wilshire’s Blvd Privé.
THE BLVD PRIVE PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BEVERLY WILSHIRE, A FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
Start brunch right with Pacific oysters with charred cucumber and urfa pepper mignonette at Sant’olina.
Wolfgang Puck has expanded and extended his L.A. empire to include Merois and Ospero at the new Pendry West Hollywood hotel. Guests will come for the view at Merois, which celebrates the open-air allure of the City of Angels from the Sunset Boulevard hotel’s rooftop, and stay for a menu that spotlights the chef’s eye for the sophisticated subtleties of Japanese, Southeast Asian and French/Californian cuisine. Standout dishes include signatures such as Snake River Farms dry-aged tomahawk ribeye, as well as new items like marinated bigeye tuna with Kaluga caviar and rice crisp and warm lobster salad. Meanwhile, Ospero, located on the corner of Sunset and Olive Drive, is a more casual concept, an Americanized version of a European-style café. The restaurant — which features a terrace as well as indoor seating — plays to Puck’s other strength, Italian, with a menu of handmade pastas and housemade pizzas fresh from a wood-burning oven. 8430 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood (323) 918-3410
