The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ New Restaurant Fanny’s Opens Today

Los Angeles would like to thank the Academy today for debuting its highly anticipated new motion picture museum on Wilshire Boulevard. The long-delayed project held a pre-opening gala last week and is now, on a sunny Thursday at the end of September, open for all the world to see. That means, too, that the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ big new ground-floor restaurant, Fanny’s, has arrived for its moment of fame.

While the full Fanny’s experience has yet to hit the red carpet, the all-day space is now partially open for cafe basics ranging from espresso drinks and pastries to salads, sandwiches, and natural wine. Eager museum-goers and local diners can enter the cafe area of the restaurant from the patio that runs alongside Fairfax (or from the lobby of the museum itself) before ordering at the counter and snagging a seat. Dinner, which is set to debut later this fall, will have a much more cinematic flair thanks to a service staff intent on throwing back to the golden age of American dining. That means tableside service, captains who float through the room in dinner jackets to oversee the experience, and bigger, richer cooking from chef Raphael Francois, who carries a Michelin-level pedigree and most recently opened Tesse on Sunset Boulevard. The opening menu is below.

Francois is joined at Fanny’s by Bill Chait, a prolific LA restaurateur in his own right, chef to the stars Wolfgang Puck, whose catering arm will help to run events and other programming at the museum. Carl Schuster is also on as a partner, with financial support from the Fran & Ray Stark Foundation.

As for dinner at Fanny’s (named for famed actor Fanny Brice), expect a big, bold arrival in November, with service spread across 10,000 square feet of dining space and two floors. For now, cinephiles can content themselves at the cafe, with daily hours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reserved museum entry is not required for dining at Fanny’s.

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