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A bright green wraparound bar layered with greenery on top and gold touches.
Inside V DTLA
Wonho Frank Lee

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Arresting New Downtown LA Restaurant Is a Peek Into the Future of Interior Design

Inside the colorful, fascinating V DTLA

by Farley Elliott
Photos by Wonho Frank Lee
18 comments / new
Farley Elliott is the Senior Editor at Eater LA and the author of Los Angeles Street Food: A History From Tamaleros to Taco Trucks. He covers restaurants in every form, from breaking news to the culture, people, and history that surrounds LA's dining landscape.

There may not be a more vibrant restaurant to open in 2019 than V DTLA, the self-styled social dining hub arriving Friday in Downtown. The “multi-sensory” dining experience is a bright and colorful mishmash of shapes and tones and flavors, all held together under one gorgeous ceiling.

V DTLA is the work of co-founder Christian Lagerlöf and Benjamin Calleja of Livit, a tech-forward restaurant operator out of Sweden who focuses on building comfortable spaces with a fast casual dining ethos. By using design to drive sales, Calleja and partners are able to aim for higher profit margins without alienating repeat customers. That means controlling everything from temperature and textures in the space, as well as coordinating the music, color scheme, and the food.

To that end, expect V DTLA to focus on a variety of fan favorites, from quick-fire Genovese-inspired pizzas to classics like tuna ceviche, burrata and grabs, cauliflower bowls, salads, and more. There is a full bar centered in the main dining area, offering cocktails in the $12 range alongside inexpensive pours of wine and beer. A secondary marble bar hugs the ornate ceiling up on a second-floor mezzanine.

The 5,600-square-foot V DTLA opens on Friday, and will keep breakfast through dinner service daily. Hours run 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday and Monday; 10 a.m. to midnight Tuesday through Thursday, and 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

V DTLA. 515 W. 7th St., Los Angeles, CA.

Marinated olives served in a clay planter on a marble table.
Marinated olives
A cauliflower rice plate with beans, avocado, and Beyond meat.
Cauliflower rice with Beyond meat
A shrimp cocktail in a tall glass, with edible flowers on the side.
Shrimp cocktail
A blistered pizza topped with golden beets and drizzled with balsamic.
Golden beet pizza
Salami, chile, and red onion blistered pizza on a plate.
The bee sting pizza with salami
A golden cocktail with dried fruit garnish.
Two cocktail ingredients being poured into a beaker at a bar.
A deep red cocktail being poured into a clear glass.
Dropping in a garnish on a clear cocktail using tweezers.
Deep green bar inside a historic building with loads of greenery.
Multi-level seating
A hanging horizontal painting of a woman at a dark bar.
Design details
Plush throwback lounge seating by an open window near the sidewalk.
Looking out on the street
A busy lounge area with deep green tables and lush plants all over.
Plenty to look at
Tall ceilings in a throwback lounge bar.
A framed picture of a person sitting behind a large agave plant.
Italian-looking graffiti artwork.
A plush dark green reading nook inside a bar.
A deep red lounge area with a bank vault door.
The red room
Modern seating inside a tall restaurant where the scalloped ceiling comes down the meet diners.
Up top
A low ceiling meets diners at the top of a modern bar.
Even more room upstairs
A lavish lounge on the second floor, complete with domes artistic ceiling.
The place to be
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