April Bloomfield’s Hearth & Hound Management Team Is Full of Surprises

Things are starting to pull into pretty tight focus over at Hearth & Hound, the April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman project slated to open in Hollywood in a matter of weeks. The project has gone from years of quiet to suddenly very animated — including a lot of rumblings about who exactly is going to be on staff there.

Of course there’s Beastie Boy Mike D helping out with the wine and reserve bottle lists (and even pouring some himself on occasion), as well as Bloomfield overseeing the broad menu. Chef de cuisine Chris Lim will handle much of the day-to-day kitchen work, who comes to LA by way of New York City and, for a time, the Michelin-starred world of France. Lim was most recently the corporate chef for Marc Forgione, but prior to that spent time under Geoffrey Zakarian and Daniel Boulud.

Hearth & Hound’s overall general manager is Sara Jester, an LA vet who opened Republique and, before that, restaurants like Short Order. She’s been in the Bloomfield and Friedman fold for a while, working at Tosca Cafe in San Francisco while traveling to New York City to train in the pair’s many other restaurants there.

Wonho Frank Lee

Perhaps most surprisingly for locals is the appointment of Maxfield Schnee as overall wine director. Schnee, an Eater Young Gun award winner, has since 2014 been working as the general manager of Downtown highlight Orsa & Winston, as well as handling overall beverage director duties for Josef Centeno’s restaurant group. Now he’ll be spearheading the program at Hearth & Hound with collaboration and help from Taylor Parsons.

Right now, it’s looking like an early October arrival for Hearth & Hound, though reservations haven’t kicked in yet. They’re still in the process of installing the final details, priming the space to become a true gem for Hollywood’s reborn dining scene.

• April Bloomfield’s New LA Restaurant Will Have Beastie Boy Mike D Pouring Wine [ELA]