Inside Auburn, LA’s Newest Fine Dining Showstopper

Behold the beauty of Auburn, LA’s newest dining star that has been waiting in the wings for more than a year. The sleek and elegant Melrose space is a perfect modern stand-in for the countless culinary acts that have preceded it, from Hatfield’s to the beloved Citrus under the late Michel Richard.

The primary player now is chef Eric Bost, whose own fine dining pedigree winds through restaurants from Republique to Guy Savoy, with stints in Las Vegas, Singapore, and beyond. He has now settled in under the lights of his first standalone project, one where diners course through four-, six-, or nine-dish dinners each evening. The menu allows for some choices within each course, but ultimately it’s Bost’s production. At the bar, nestled right up front near the cantilevered glass front door, an a la carte menu comes alongside cocktails from Matthew Belanger of Death & Co and Lauren Corriveau of Nitecap.

Mostly though, Bost’s new 105-seat performance space will double, at least from some dining room vantages, as a nightly show into the open kitchen, complete with tucked-away open grill, dual French top cooking lines, and a wide pass for sending dishes out into the room. A collection of mostly four-top tables will share the room with the kitchen, while most diners instead stick to the semi-enclosed patio space just beyond the glass. The seating there is ringed in light touches of green and buoyed by the low hum of Melrose traffic, while just-rough-enough off-white tablecloths cling to the sturdy white oak tables via a collection of hidden magnets beneath the tabletop.

Auburn’s opening night is tomorrow, with a call time starting at 5:30 p.m. Expect dinner service only to begin, running Tuesday through Saturday until 10:30 p.m., with lunch to come in a few months.

Auburn. 6703 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA.

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