Frankland Crab & Co. Finds Warmer Waters in Woodland Hills

There’s never a dull moment in the Phillip Frankland Lee universe, as evidenced by his recent restaurant switcheroo up in Encino at Scratch Bar Kitchen. That reformatting of the dining area meant the loss of Frankland Crab & Co., the coastal-inspired seafood shop that sat at the front. Now Lee is moving the project over to Woodland Hills, signing off on a lease at the The Village at Westfield Topanga.

Lee only posted publicly about the new lease yesterday, but the deal has been in the works for several months. He and partner Margarita Kallas-Lee will be entering full build-out mode soon, with plans to jump into the mix by sometime in the summer. The initial version of the restaurant didn’t actually survive the one year mark, opening in May 2017 and closing a while back to make room for a lounge area for Scratch Bar.

The Lees are of course also hard at work bringing their entire slate of Montecito restaurants to life following the devastating floods in that tony Central Coast community. They’ll be working just as hard down in Woodland Hills to beat back the fierce competition at the well-heeled Valley mall, where more than 60 restaurants and cafes currently hold court across two properties. Among the most direct competition is EMC Seafood & Raw Bar and Sweetfin, two mostly raw fish spots with their own big following.

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