A Star Italian Restaurant Expands From the Vegas Strip to West Hollywood

There seems to be more Italian food than ever in Los Angeles right now, sparked in part by out-of-towners like Etta who have recently set their sights on the city. Next up is Lavo, the ultra-luxe Italian destination known for its clubbier Las Vegas location and its (only slightly) more mellow New York City digs. The restaurant, owned and operated by the busy Tao nightlife group, is taking over the shuttered Roku space on the Sunset Strip, as first reported by What Now LA.

Reps for Tao Group have confirmed the arrival of Lavo, though they’re quick to caution that the new outpost won’t be the same as the decade-old branches found elsewhere. The plan instead is to make this West Hollywood version more of a traditional sit-down restaurant (“no party brunches,” for one) with a primary focus on the food above atmosphere. As for timing, expect the Los Angeles version of Lavo to open sometime in early 2022 at 9201 Sunset Boulevard.

In other news:

• Has the Lincoln Heights Avenue 26 night market become too unwieldy to keep going? LA Times columnist Steve Lopez says that the scene should be shut down at least temporarily to address health and safety concerns and to allow neighbors in the area to have a larger voice in the market itself, which has been impacting that stretch of Lincoln Heights with crowding and illegal parking for months.
• Phillip Frankland Lee’s Sushi Bar is going permanent in Austin, Texas, reports Eater Austin. The restaurant was born out of Lee’s desire to move to a more open restaurant economy during California’s 2020 coronavirus surge; stop-ins by famous names like Joe Rogan made the restaurant a Texas hit.
• Cafe Fig is now open inside Hotel Figueroa in Downtown. The all-day, healthy-leaning restaurant takes over for the closed Brea, formerly by Casey Lane.

• Valle Venice has closed, per the restaurant’s website. “After a year of trying to reach an agreement with our landlord and bank on payments during Covid, and not being able to reach a resolution, we have chosen to walk away from this property,” the site now says, though reps for the onetime pop-up in the former MTN space tell the Los Angeles Times that they plan to scout for other more permanent spaces on the Westside.
• Rodeo X at New Haven Marketplace in Ontario is now open, meaning Inland Empire diners can snack on ramen, burgers, mochi doughnuts, and more from the food hall. Meanwhile, Pops Creamery is now open at 24480 Main Street in Santa Clarita, offering ice cream sundaes, sorbets, and specialty dessert dishes like ice cream nachos and banana splits.
• Uncle Paulie’s Deli is down for the count (at least for a little while) on Beverly, the result of an early morning fire that damaged the kitchen. There’s no timetable for reopening yet, but ownership says the damage was ultimately “minor.”