For two brief years, savvy Los Angeles diners gathered around a small U-shaped counter tucked inside José Andrés' now-closed restaurant Bazaar to watch chef Aitor Zabala craft whimsical, avant-garde creations at Somni, one of the restaurants most famous in the country. remarkable gastronomic experiences. The caviar cones came served in mannequin hands. “Tunahawk” held the fish to the edge of a tomahawk-like blade. The deconstructed ingredients were shaped into cows, beets and flowers.
LA Times food critic Bill Addison profiled Zabala's 20-plus courses “the headiest heights of fine dining” and Somni appeared on the LA Times 101 list in 2018 and 2019. It obtained two Michelin stars and a “discovery” award for the 50 best restaurants in the world.
Then, almost as quickly as it rose to fame, the restaurant-within-a-restaurant closed in 2020 after the SLS Hotel terminated his contract with Andrés' ThinkFoodGroup.
The city thought it had lost Somni forever. Then, in 2022, Zabala returned with news: Praised tasting menu restaurant would reopenthis time as sole chef and owner, in a new home in West Hollywood. Now, after years of renovations and delays, the reborn Somni debuted late last month.
Somni's dining room in West Hollywood in November.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Demand was so high that about five minutes after reservations opened, all spots were booked and remain booked through January. Although several new customers got these reservations, Zabala says that many of the first diners to show up were guests of his previous Somni.
“It was beautiful that they were waiting for us to come back,” says the chef. “We tried very hard to come back and we are very, very proud to be in the city.”
Andrés, the renowned chef and humanitarian, first convinced a young Zabala to leave Spain's famous El Bulli in 2007 and help develop the Bazaar at the SLS Hotel outside Beverly Hills. He returned to El Bulli after Bazaar was up and running, but returned to Los Angeles in 2010 to help Andrés open Saam, Somni's tasting menu predecessor, which appeared in the same space in 2018.
Now, at the new Somni, which means “dream” in Catalan, the dishes are still light and fun, but the menu is completely new.
Salted meringues, for example, made an appearance in the previous Somni, but in Somni 2.0, Zabala and his team fully rely on them. They emulsify them, dry them, and shape them into more whimsical shapes, like a fish-like seaweed meringue that serves as a container for smoked butter and caviar.
“We were not looking for [to make] a new technique or something,” Zabala says of Somni’s new menu. “I'll call it an evolution of the past and the techniques we know and the techniques we use and the techniques we learn, but we're never looking to find something new.”
Still, it cannot stop innovating. Although Zabala previously used steamed egg yolks, here at Somni the chefs make pasta only with yolks, avoiding flour and water, simply but precisely steaming the eggs spread in a thin layer to obtain bouncy pasta-like sheets. . More technology is also being used in fantasy, such as 3D printing, where tomatoes that appear as a kind of paper are completely edible.
A dessert platter inspired by Randy's Donuts at Somni in West Hollywood.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Another thing that has changed is the atmosphere of the restaurant. While the old Somni was locked inside the SLS hotel, the new Somni almost seems to be hidden in a secret garden. Behind a door leading into a long hallway, you'll find a trio of buildings and a softly lit courtyard. Cloud-shaped sculptures hang from the trees. Immediately to your left is a private dining room and wine cellar. Further ahead and to the right is a welcome reception with canapés, such as thinly sliced imported Spanish ham, and the patio to enjoy the meal. Beyond is the kitchen and production building. Finally, between the two structures is the dining room: a bright amber rectangular space where the prismatic bust of a rainbow-shaped bull, resembling the restaurant's mascot, towers over guests from the corner.
While the original Somni featured 10 seats around a fairly open kitchen, 14 seats now line the edges of long, curved tables that face a counter where chefs put the finishing touches on their ornate forms of food, the main kitchen now It is out of sight.
Zabala canvassed more than 60 locations before finding the former Donna Karan retail store and flower shop that is now Somni. But the space lacked the infrastructure for a restaurant and required lengthy construction, new plumbing and other operational needs like exhaust hoods and new air conditioners. The final design of several buildings, Zabala says, was essentially built “from the ground up, from the ground up.” Most days, he says, he watched over the construction site with the architects and contractors as the tractors bulldozed the structures and brought the yard to life.
As the assembly progressed, the chef appeared with a series of dinners in Korea and began planning the details: What napkins would the new Somni use? At what intervals would you send staff to clean?
“We took the time to build it better and think it through the space better,” he says. “I will say the year was challenging. Exciting, but challenging at the same time.”
In one of the three structures, a new wine cellar houses more than 300 bottles overseen primarily by wine director Caroline Costarella (formerly of San Francisco's Lazy Bear) and general manager Daniel Gorlas, a Per Se alum. They worked with Zabala to create a program inspired by the chef's history: approximately 80% of the wine list comes from Spain and California, uniting his old and new roots.
A look inside Somni's kitchen in West Hollywood.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
“There are great wine cellars everywhere in the world,” says Zabala. “You can be in Tokyo, you can be in Los Angeles, you can be in New York, you can be anywhere, but that doesn't mean anything if it's not a meaningful situation.”
Wine pairings are now offered in two modalities: the Arrels, which translates to “roots” in Catalan, especially highlights the links between Spain and California and is priced at $225. The Calafia, named for the fictional warrior queen, serves wines that focus on the vintages and nuances of their terroir, sourced from beyond Spain and California, for $415.
The cost of the tasting menu has also increased from Somni's original version. Once $280, the price is currently set at $495 without pairings. Larger groups can reserve the private dining room for $995 per person, which includes drink pairings and reserves the space for the entire evening. In a 2022 interview with The Times Zabala said he expected the price of the new Somni to increase; Since then, local and state legislation increased the cost of the minimum wage and inflation skyrocketed, driving costs even higher.
“Prices went up everywhere, cost went up everywhere,” he said recently. “We are located in the second city with the highest salaries in the United States. West Hollywood — and everything is more expensive… I'm sure people will be shocked at $495, but I still believe that high-end dining is a cheap luxury compared to other luxuries. With clothes, I don't know if [it] give[s] you have the same emotions [as] to eat.”
More and more high-end tasting menus are appearing in Los Angeles at all price levels. In early December, Seline debuted with Pasjoli and former Dialogue chef David Beran. this summer Vespertino reopened its doors after years of closure and, next year, Daniel Patterson (lately of Alta Adams and Locol, but previously of San Francisco's Coi) is ready to return to fine dining and open a new restaurant with a tasting menu with business partner Keith Corbin.
Someday, Zabala says, he could offer a second Somni format, possibly a shorter menu at a lower price for those who want to experience the restaurant. Fine dining is making a resurgence, and if possible, you'd like yours to be affordable but still a luxury.
Somni is at 9045 Nemo St., West Hollywood. Open from Wednesday to Sunday with seating at 5:30 and, in the private dining room, at 7:00 pm
