Phillip Frankland Lee’s Next Valley Restaurant Serves a Pasta Tasting Menu

Chefs Phillip Frankland Lee and partner Margarita Kallas-Lee have flipped the former Woodley Proper space in Encino to a new restaurant, called simply Pasta | Bar. As the name implies, the new indoor, sit-down restaurant focuses on Italian flavors across a multi-course tasting menu, as guided by chef de cuisine Kane Sorrells (NYC’s Blanca). Because of the countywide reopening guidelines, expect lots of masks and Plexiglass and only eight bar stools available per seating, at a cost of $85 per person, with the option for a $70 wine pairing add-on. The first public night of service is tomorrow, and reservations are available on Tock now.

And in other news:

• Happy Ice, the Philadelphia water ice company from owner Lemeir Mitchell, has opened on Melrose, reports LA Magazine. Meanwhile, Majordomo has returned in Chinatown, and Osteria la Buca on Melrose is open again following a positive coronavirus test from one employee.
• Maude chef Chris Flint says the Beverly Hills fine dining restaurant will return with “a new concept” in July, after having transitioned to a marketplace during the past few months of pandemic lockdown.
• Street vendors protested en masse in front of the Department of Public Health yesterday, advocating for a clearer path towards low-cost permitting, especially now as they have largely been left out of the mayor’s LA Alfresco outdoor dining initiative.

• The LA Times reports that employees of Yamashiro in Hollywood are unhappy with the way they’ve been treated during the pandemic. According to the Times, multiple workers say that the restaurant received federal loan money via the CARES Act, but instead of hiring back staff at their original positions, previous employees were told to sign up for roles as electricians and manual laborers to do work around the property. If they refused, they would be denied further unemployment benefits.
• All-outdoor Mexican restaurant Salazar is reopening in Frogtown on July 3.
• Highland Park Spanish restaurant Otoño is throwing a big LGBTQIA-focused (and socially distant) parking lot party on Saturday, complete with food, drink, and live music.