Mixed Company Will Be a Modern, All-Day Mediterranean Eatery Next to The Black Cat

Dozens of Silver Lakers packed into a stuffy, sweaty meeting room of the Citibank on Glendale Blvd. last night to attend a meeting of the neighborhood council's Urban Design and Preservation Advisory Committee. Among the points on the agenda were plans for the space at Hyperion and Sunset Blvd. adjoining neighborhood institution The Black Cat — plans which we've known would involve a 120-seat restaurant, but apart from that, few other details.

This is what we now know: Charlie Conrad, who owns both The Black Cat in Silver Lake and Village Idiot in West Hollywood with a group of partners, plans to open Mixed Company, a 3,000+ square foot restaurant (larger than The Black Cat by roughly a third) with a 850 square foot patio located on the premises. The business, which is shared with The Black Cat, will remain independent and autonomous, according to Conrad. They plan to sell beer and wine only, instead of a full bar. The hours are tentatively slated for 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday; and 7 a.m. until 12 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

That's right  — 7 o'clock in the a.m. Mixed Company is aiming to be your all-hours, all-meals, all-purpose eatery, serving a wide swath of cuisine that's being described as "Part high-concept take-out/bakery/deli and part full-service cafe/restaurant... boldly Californian, but with a polished Mediterranean flair... Mixed Co. will speak to the everyday dining needs of this community with a refreshingly modern ethnic accent."

I'm not sure what a "modern ethnic accent" is supposed to sound like, but the menu, upon first glance, is certainly eclectic. A bakery menu featuring different coffees, teas and all manners of pastries will be available until 4 p.m.; a lunch/brunch menu features items like "Egg Sandwich #1" (fennel sausage, bibb lettuce, smoked cherry peppers, grilled pan de miel) and a soft scramble with corned beef hash shishito pepper, feta, and harissa creme. A sandwich menu runs the gamut from corned beef Reuben to lamb merguez with harissa slaw to a chicken schnitzel BLT with pickled green tomatoes.

The dinner menu leans more firmly toward the self-described "polished Mediterranean": lots of barbecued meats and flatbreads, served family style with various sauces and sides. Customers will be able to order different sized portions of grilled/roasted chicken, pork, beef, and lamb accompanied by lemon greek yogurt, white barbecue, sumac chili, tomato oregano, or chimichurri sauces.

Lindsay Kennedy, co-partner in the venture, said that he and Matt Ranney, chef at Village Idiot, will oversee the cooking and menu planning. Prices are tentatively in the $12-$18 range for dinner items and $8-$15 for lunch items.

Richard Hall, a.k.a. Moby, also made an appearance at the meeting to present some minor changes to his plans for Little Pine, a proposed organic vegan eatery and bar scheduled to open on Rowena Ave. The bespectacled DJ attempted to quell neighbors' concerns that Little Pine would create parking issues and noise disturbances in the area. Moby insisted that, despite the liquor license, vegans were a largely well-behaved, "boring" crowd ("Present company included," Moby chuckled), unlikely to set the neighborhood ablaze in a kombucha-fueled rage.

Moby amended the proposed hours of the business, shortening the closing time from 1 a.m. to 12 a.m. Hours of the outdoor patio were also shortened. In order to ease parking concerns, he arranged for 11 off-site employee parking spots at nearby businesses in order to alleviate possible parking issues.

Give him credit for participating in the process — he's a very rich man and certainly doesn't have to show up to neighborhood meetings to listen to people kvetch about his proposed restaurant, much less actually take action and buy additional parking and shorten his business hours (though, to be fair, he could simply extend them again once the place is up and running). However, he expressed a strong interest in respecting the people who live in the area. "I live in the neighborhood," he said. "I totally understand and respect people's concerns."