One of Hollywood’s Most Famous Dining Rooms Returns to Life on Friday

Hollywood is brimming with upcoming talent, from Evan Funke to Lincoln Carson to Michael Mina, but there’s one steady local restaurant group that’s making the most immediate splash in the neighborhood. After years of anticipation (tamped down for a time by the pandemic), Superba is taking over the former Hearth & Hound space at 6530 Sunset Boulevard, with plans to open this Friday, October 22.

Across Los Angeles, Superba is known as a destination for daytime staples from salads and grain bowls to breads, pastries, coffee, and evening wines and entrees. Now the group behind the budding chain gets access to what may be Hollywood’s most beloved patio, water fountain and all. Nigel Stephens, previously of Superba Food + Bread in Venice and Republique, is on to oversee the all-day menu and sprawling 6,500-square-foot indoor-outdoor space, spread across multiple dining areas and a bubbly patio that’s sure to capture some evening attention.

Longtime LA diners will know this soaring, stone-wrapped property as the longtime home of British pub the Cat & Fiddle, which was forced to move over to Highland to make room for April Bloomfield’s troubled Hearth & Hound project. That restaurant closed in early 2019, paving the way for Superba’s ownership group American Gonzo Food Corporation — including founder Paul Hibler and CEO Jeff Goodman — to step in with their own plans.

American Gonzo runs restaurants across greater Los Angeles, including sister project Superba Snacks & Coffee as well as Pitfire Pizza, Pie Society, and American Beauty, and had looked to initially open Superba in Hollywood just days before the first wave of pandemic lockdowns in March 2020. As closures and curfews rocked the city in the intervening half-year, American Gonzo instead shuffled around its staff (including moving some from Superba Hollywood to American Beauty) and shelved some of its bigger plans, pausing this Hollywood reopening until just now. Last March, American Beauty was at the center of a tip pool wage dispute that resulted in a protest among some staff members for a time.

The new Superba Hollywood space may feel more focused on dinnertime and date night than the sunny, open Venice original, which first brought the Superba brand to the city in 2014, but don’t let that fool anyone. Studio Shamshiri designed the all-day Hollywood space, which spans 4,500 square feet of inside dining, a 2,000-square-foot patio, as well as an oyster bar, coffee counter, and 14-seat cocktail bar, to work for all occasions and at basically all times.

Like the Venice original, this Hollywood location will offer all-day service from brunch through lunch and dinner, with hours from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. during the week, and 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on weekends (10 p.m. on Sunday). Reservations can be made on Resy. The opening menus are below.