Downtown Fine Dining Chef Vartan Abgaryan Heads to Venice For Breezy New Project

After a nice long run at the top of Downtown (quite literally), Vartan Abgaryan is heading west. The finer dining chef’s next project will put him on casual-cool Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, inside the former Salt Air space and not far at all from the ocean.

Abgaryan is partnering with Dave Reiss, the owner of the now-closed Salt Air, and Paul Pruitt to bring his next new restaurant to life. It’s called Yours Truly, and will focus on the kind of seasonal California cooking this city loves so much. Whereas 71Above was always meant to be a high-flying fanciful evening out, Abgaryan envisions Yours Truly as a staple kind of place where locals, tourists, and across-town diners can come to enjoy a meal. There will be a heavy — though by no means exclusive — reliance on vegetables, plus some pulls from Abgaryan’s own Angeleno background.

As for timing, expect Yours Truly to come alive sometime towards the end of next month, following a revamp of the restaurant space and a honing-in of the menu. Lunch and brunch will come down the line, as will future plans for the chef and his new culinary partners. Meanwhile, Downtown stalwart 71Above still has Agbaryan in its corner on an as-needed basis, while longtime chef de cuisine Javier Lopez steps in up there to take over day-to-day operational control.

Yours Truly. 1616 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Los Angeles, CA.

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