Here's the View From 71Above, Landing Later This Year Downtown

Things are coming along at 71Above, the upcoming Downtown high-rise restaurant from Emil Eyvazoff and Vartan Abgaryan. Though the restaurant itself is still a long ways off, some tantalizing peeks of what’s to come are beginning to emerge.

First there’s this look from LA Downtowner at the views that diners will be able to enjoy once the restaurant takes shape. It’s a pretty staggering landscape out there, with sightlines extending to the ocean, Point Dume, and even Laguna Beach in Orange County (so they say).

What’s even cooler is the glass itself, which the story quotes as being "electrochromic." If that all sounds much too fancy, just know this: there are 192 individual panes of glass, each one ‘smart’ enough to tint and reflect based on the position of the sun so no one gets cooked inside on a bright, sunny summer day.

On a less elevated front, it looks like chef Vartan has started the process of locking in his opening menu. That’s per the below Instagram post showing the beginnings of the process — though we already know that the food will be market-driven and highly seasonal, which has been Abgaryan’s thing for a while now; it’s one of the reasons his loss at Cliff’s Edge in Silver Lake was so dramatic when it was announced.

In addition, the restaurant has picked up Reggie Narito, currently working with the Estate's Group, and one of the only Master Sommeliers that operate in California (he also got a cameo in the Somm film).

And so it begins! Menu development #71above #71aboverestaurant #comingsoon #june #cheflife #dtla #downtownla

A photo posted by Vartan Abgaryan (@vartanabgaryan) on Feb 25, 2016 at 10:59am PST

More to come on 71Above as the glamorous new Downtown upstart continues to come to life. Just know that this one is going to take a while.