Venice’s Great White Expands Footprint, Adds Dinner Hours, Pizza, and Wine

Casual Venice cafe Great White has managed to expand its footprint and its menu offerings during the pandemic, debuting a new, larger space on Pacific Avenue with lots more outdoor dining. The restaurant, owned by Sam Cooper and Sam Trude and cheffed by Juan Ferriero, takes over a former Subway location next door, and is now offering dinner in addition to daytime coffee and snacks.

The expanded space comes as the ongoing pandemic settles in to daily restaurant life in Los Angeles and beyond. Immediately after initial shutdown orders back in March, Trude and Cooper pivoted (along with nearly everyone else) to a takeout-only model, and now into an outdoor patio setup that allows for evening dining. The redone space seats 80 safely, and comes complete with olive trees, string lights, and lots of shade.

On the food front, chef Ferriero is doing wood-fired pizzas as well as new mains like fish and chips and pasta. Wine comes with a natural bent from former Tabula Rasa worker Andy Miller; there are also spritzes and craft beer and margaritas available. Dinner hours run from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

While closures have become almost commonplace during the pandemic, a few restaurants and chefs have managed to grow, albeit slowly. Chef Brendan Collins is now doing British pub fare at the Original Farmers Market on Fairfax, and Clark Street Bread is opening a new cafe in Brentwood, among others. Meanwhile there’s a whole generation of young, hungry restaurant industry types who have shifted their focus to selling food via Instagram, directly from their homes.

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