New All-Outdoor Wood-Fired Seafood Hits Familiar Territory in Encino

Chef Phillip Frankland Lee continues to grow his Encino collection of restaurants. His newest venture is called Leviathan, and it opens one floor below his upstairs trio of spots like Sushi Bar and Pasta Bar. The all-outdoor, 16-seat restaurant is a collective effort with partner and wife Margarita Kallas-Lee and chef Dylan Stage, who spent time working at and staging in high-end kitchens in New York City and Spain.

Leviathan will focus mainly on hearth cooking from a brick-walled fire pit setup downstairs, where six distanced diners a night can watch the action from a chef’s counter. There will also be four tables outside, and an a la carte menu that moves from crab legs and bluefin tuna to suckling pick and into sourdough panna cotta for dessert. The restaurant opens Friday and will do hours thereafter from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday.

And in other news:

• The NY Times has a story out on Runningman, the upstart Koreatown food delivery service that’s changing the way mom and pop restaurants in the neighborhood reach their customers.
• A new pizza restaurant called Endless Color has opened at 123 S. Topanga Canyon Boulevard, reports Toddrickallen.
• Los Angeles Lakers head coach Frank Vogel is apparently missing the pizza scene in Los Angeles while quarantined in the NBA’s playoff bubble down in Orlando.
• Check out this great patio setup from LA Oaxacan restaurant favorite Gish Bac.

• Black Forest Bakery, a cottage industry bakery based in LA, gets some love from the LA Times in this new video.
• A new spicy fried chicken sandwich (what else) concept has taken over the kitchen at the Improv comedy club on Melrose. Poultrygram, with a second location in Brea, is now doing pick-up and delivery from the Hollywood-ish address.
• The team from Union in Pasadena is opening a pizza restaurant next door soon, reports What Now LA. It’s to be called U Street Pizza, and will focus on a New York style.
• Voodoo Vin is now open in Virgil Village at 713 N. Virgil Avenue, selling a range of bottles for all to enjoy. There are plans for a proper wine bar too, once the pandemic is over.