Santa Monica’s Next All-Day Cafe Does Plenty of Wood-Fired Grilling

The Westside is about to take another star turn, as serial restaurateur Bruce Marder turns on the lights to The Rooster, his ambitious new all-day restaurant and bakery. The Rooster has been in the works since well into last year, but now the team is targeting an opening date of November 5.

Marder’s name has long been synonymous with a number of Westside-ish projects, including Capo, Marvin, and Cora’s Coffee Shoppe. He even has Red Rooster Bakery, though this new offshoot the Rooster will offer more than just freshly-baked breads — though that will be available too.

Right from the start the Rooster will offer coffee, pastries, and simple breakfast items like frittatas starting at 7 a.m. every day. From there it’s a seamless move into lunch, where the team is doing sandwiches (they’re curing their own meats in-house, naturally) as well as oven-baked flatbreads, salads, full-on pizzas, and more. Dinner rolls around by way of an after-work menu that runs 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays — think pate and toast, wings, and inexpensive drinks.

The Rooster

The Rooster really expects to come alive in the evenings, when Marder and co. will be working a wood-fired grill to turn out everything from seabass to bone-in filets to a shareable $125 bistecca fiorentina. There are lots of vegetables too, of course, plus cocktails that mostly stick to the classics. Add in weekend brunch, and suddenly the Rooster feels like an anchor for a neighborhood that already has staples like Milo & Olive nearby, with the Border Grill team opening next year as well. Expect the Rooster to open on November 5, keeping those all-day hours and working the open grill every night.

The Rooster. 2301 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA.

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