Ori Menashe’s Arts District Dreams Grow With New Restaurant Bavel

Arts District chef Ori Menashe certainly knows how to keep busy. The Bestia chef has been quietly hard at work bringing his long-gestating second restaurant, Bavel, to life, and now it seems the 2013 dream is almost ready to come true.

Whereas Bestia is mostly a modern, winding Italian restaurant, Ori Menashe and partner/wife/pastry chef Genevieve Gergis’s new Bavel will carry a direct Middle Eastern focus. Some of that will play into Menashe’s own Israeli background, while other dishes will take from the broader region as a whole. Reached for comment, Gergis described the food as elevated Middle Eastern food, carrying a ton of influences across the broad culinary spectrum. Yes, there will be hummus, but expect a lot more beyond that.

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The target is to open Bavel within the first part of 2018. The space, a big, industrial slice not far from Bestia on Mateo Street, is nearly complete. The timing could end up being ideal too, as places like Mh Zh, Kismet, The Exchange, Farida, and Botanica prove that the modern Mediterranean renaissance is here to stay.

Bavel
500 S. Mateo St.
Los Angeles, CA

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