David Chang’s Momofuku Empire Will Open a Los Angeles Restaurant in Late 2017

Momofuku, the restaurant empire headed by David Chang, will soon open a full-service restaurant called North Spring in an industrial section north of Downtown Los Angeles. The announcement comes on the heels of months of swirling rumors around town that the celebrated restaurant group, with locations in Sydney, Toronto, and Washington D.C. (and its home base of New York City) would be opening in LA. Today those rumors are confirmed, with Chang telling Eater that the restaurant will open in late 2017.

The location of the approximately five thousand square foot project will be at 1725 Naud Street, along Spring Street and a few steps away from L.A. Historic Park. It’s a currently undefined area of town that is already poised to bring in more than a few New York City outposts, including cocktail bar Apotheke and music venue Baby’s All Right.

Though Eater asked Chang what kind of food they would be serving, there were only a few certain things he would confirm. First, that it would not initially serve any Momofuku classics like the famed pork buns or ramen. Second, the cuisine would be totally original to the Los Angeles location, and it would “draw inspiration from LA’s diverse culinary landscape and California’s bounty.” It’s a departure from Momofuku’s play in Las Vegas, which feels a bit like a “greatest hits,” featuring everything from those steamed buns to a bevy of other large format crowd-pleasing dishes.

Chang was in Los Angeles this past weekend scoping out real estate because he’s also planning to live here, at least throughout the restaurant’s opening period. A quick look on Instagram shows stops at favorites Cassell’s for its patty melt, and Sun Nong Dan for its spicy braised galbi jjim.

When Eater pressed Chang for a bit more information on North Spring, he said that he’d been wanting to open a restaurant in Los Angeles for a very long time, which would certainly please Momofuku fans who would travel to New York for pork buns and Sichuan rice cakes.

Momofuku was founded in 2004 with a small ramen shop called Momofuku Noodle Bar, later expanding to Ssam Bar in 2006, and then the fine dining Momofuku Ko in 2008. The group’s first restaurant outside of NYC opened in Sydney in 2011. For anyone interested, Milk Bar, Momofuku’s dessert shop offshoot, is opening in LA too.

• David Chang: “Almost Everything We’ve Done Has Been a Failure from the Get-Go” [E]