P.Y.T. Elevates the Vegetable to New Heights in Downtown

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Farley Elliott is the Senior Editor at Eater LA and the author of Los Angeles Street Food: A History From Tamaleros to Taco Trucks. He covers restaurants in every form, from breaking news to the culture, people, and history that surrounds LA's dining landscape.

There’s a nice ring to P.Y.T., the acronym’d new restaurant from serial Downtown restaurateur Josef Centeno. Though it certainly evokes the famous Michael Jackson song of the same name, in truth Centeno says the name doesn’t mean anything specific (“Pretty Young Turnip”, perhaps?). That’s okay; he’s more than willing to let the menu do the talking.

Taking a cue from Los Angeles’ most pervasive new trend, Josef Centeno has decided that P.Y.T. will be a vegetable restaurant through and through. That means leafy greens and lots of vegetables as a base for most of the menu, though breads, fruits, and dairy are by no means off limits. Neither is meat, as it so happens — it’s just that you won’t really find animal proteins center stage here. Instead, they’ll be singing in the chorus.

The space on Main Street feels similarly light and lifted, thanks to lots of sun soaking in from the windows out to the street. Remember, this is one half of the Ledlow space that Centeno has been working with for quite some time now, pared down with a center partition to give the room a more close-knit feel.

Reupholstered bar seats match the funky new wraparound bench seating along the edges, while two-tops and one large communal table work the rest of the floor. There’s also a leafy patio out front to enjoy, while inside the vegetation comes from a few handcrafted details like colored turnips along the far wall, and a few well-placed bushels and bowls of veggies around the room.

P.Y.T. soft-opened for service over the weekend, and keeps truncated hours this week from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. (and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for weekend brunch). From there, daily hours from 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. On weekends, brunch runs from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. A full dinner menu for the restaurant is below.

P.Y.T.
400 S. Main St.
Los Angeles, CA