Enrique Olvera, the famous Mexico City chef behind restaurants like Pujol in CDMX and Cosme in New York, plans to open a modern seafood restaurant in Venice this summer with a menu of ceviches, fish tacos, cocktails and fresh tortillas.
San Damián will open in the former Atla space after a nearly two-year vacancy and will be run by Olvera's team from Damián in downtown Los Angeles, one of the city's top 101 restaurants.
“It's a lot of what we've been building since we opened downtown in 2020,” said Damian executive chef Chuy Cervantes, who will also oversee the Westside location. “[It’s] “A lot of the same values and ideas, and I hope to bring them to the Venice community.”
Olvera and his Casamata restaurant group launched the Venice outpost of Atla in 2023 after introducing it to New York City in 2017. The Los Angeles location closed in 2024.
On Thursday morning, Atla announced it would also be closing its original New York location, posting on social media that “the time has come to reinvent ourselves.”
In an email statement, Olvera told The Times that Atla's all-day concept was not right for Venice and that the months of vacancy were necessary to find the right successor.
“We took our time developing the concept,” he said, “and we wanted to find the right partners.”
Chef Chuy Cervantes practices plating a seafood tlayuda before launching San Damián.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
In the end, Olvera looked to his own group and said that given the positive reception of Damián and his tandem Arts District taqueria, Ditroit, he turned to Cervantes, who has worked with the restaurant group since 2014. Olvera said they hope to open their latest collaboration in June.
Inspired by the proximity to Venice Beach, they came up with a Los Angeles ode to Pacific Coast seafood culture, drawing on a variety of regions including Baja, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Acapulco, Ensenada and the California coast.
The project will also be supervised by Damián's general manager, Carlos García.
Cervantes said the Damián team's intention was always to focus more on seafood, but once they settled into the more industrial neighborhood of the Arts District and felt a pull to the cuisine and communities of Boyle Heights, their more coastal plans took a backseat to becoming “a more mass-focused restaurant.” With San Damián they plan to make that original goal a reality.
The same mill and masa program that powers Damián and Ditroit will also supply San Damián with fresh masa, tortillas and tostadas, but they will be used for items like a seafood tlayuda topped with house-made tuna chorizo and sliced sea snails. Another new dish, the Californian ceviche, is a ceviche made entirely with ingredients from the state: fish from the California coast, shrimp, lobster or uni from Santa Barbara and vegetables from the Santa Monica farmers market.
San Damián will serve a small rotation of tacos, perhaps more traditional, Cervantes said, than what can be found in Ditroit: a classic Baja-style fish taco and an al pastor taco.
A seafood tlayuda, made with tuna chorizo and sea snails, will be served at upcoming Venetian restaurant San Damián.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
“I don't want that to be the most challenging part of the menu,” he said. “I want it to be your convenience. I want it to be your option, even if you just want to come in for a taco and a beer. I want it to be super available to everyone.”
The bar program, although still in development, will include agave spirits and Mexican wines, many of which come from the Guadalupe Valley. The chefs hope the space, which seats about 70 people, is reminiscent of a beachside moment filled with natural light, bright seafood dishes and icy cold drinks.
“I think Los Angeles has its own feel when it comes to those flavors,” Cervantes said of the city's variety of seafood restaurants. “I'm trying to identify what exactly it is, finding those similarities within the different seafood restaurants here. San Damiano is kind of my point of view, and highlighting the influences I've had here. I'm super inspired by them and the work they do.”
San Damiano is scheduled to open this summer at 1025 Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice.
