One of LA’s Most Vital Vegan Restaurants Closes Forever This Weekend

Tough news for vegans everywhere today (but especially in the Valley) as word comes that Phillip Frankland Lee will close his restaurant The Gadarene Swine after service tomorrow night.

The popular Studio City restaurant offered many things, among them a refined vegetable-only tasting menu format that would stretch ten or more courses, as well as an a la carte experience for folks looking to jump in and out. It was also one of Lee’s first experiences with what has become his service signature: handling plates himself and sending them directly to customers at the wraparound bar. His next iteration of cutting out the server would come later at the reborn Scratch Bar in Encino, where all of the cooks are tasked with feeding the customers directly from the bar.

Sadly, it seems that former Beverly Hills business partner Daryoush Danesh may be at least in part behind the shutter, as he was still a partner in The Gadarene Swine as well. The two couldn’t overlook their differences any longer, what with Danesh for a time running a second Scratch Bar out of the former building on La Cienega even as Lee took his concept up to Encino.

The less-than-amicable separation leaves Lee without one of his strongest early concepts, but that doesn’t seem to be slowing him down one bit. While he doesn’t have plans to simply reopen The Gadarene Swine somewhere else at the moment, he’s keeping plenty busy with his new gig overseeing the menu at El Chavo in Silver Lake, as well as working with Luke Reyes to bring Oh Man Ramen to life next door to Scratch Bar in Encino. The final night of service for The Gadarene Swine is tomorrow.