Spanish Cocktails and Conservas Come to Highland Park’s Busiest Block

Los Angeles’s startlingly small Spanish restaurant community is getting a boost with Otoño, a prime new player coming to the hottest stretch of Highland Park. The restaurant is the work of Teresa Montaño, the opening chef of Pasadena’s Ración who left last year to begin work on her own project.

That project is Otoño, a casual bar and restaurant on Figueroa, with sights set on opening right at the end of the year. The plan is to work a Spanish menu through a California lens, using local produce and backing it all up with familiar flavors from across Catalonia. There will be paella, tapas, and larger-format dishes for all to share, as well as Spanish cocktails with an emphasis on gin.

Montaño and partner Vince Nguyen have tapped Ana Henton for the design of the space, which sits on Figueroa just steps from Civil Coffee, Highland Park Bowl, Kitchen Mouse, Mr. Holmes Bakehouse, and the upcoming Lodge Room music venue. That’s to say nothing of projects like Go Get Em Tiger, Homestate, and Matt Molina and the Silverlake Wine crew still slated to come to Figueroa in the near future.

Otoño [official photo]

Expect tall ceilings and an airy feel to the old brick building, with room for around 70 diners at a clip within the 2,400 square foot space. There will be a wide bar at the front near the door, followed by long banquettes running at both sides of the room towards the back for two- and four-top seating.

The opening of Otoño could make for perfect timing for Montaño and crew. Spanish cuisine and service style is having a bit of a mini-moment in Los Angeles, from the simple bar ordering at Journeymen in Atwater Village to the canned conservas at the newly redone Louie’s of Mar Vista. Expect an opening for the restaurant by the end of this year, or early next.

Otoño
5715 N. Figueroa
Los Angeles, CA

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