On June 13, one of the most celebrated eclectic restaurants in the city will close after almost a decade of praise, frog legs and cocktails dyed with fresh fruits and vegetables. Here I am looking at you, the Koreatown restaurant that doubles the genre of the restorer lien ta and the late chef Jonathan Whitener, is finishing his career six months later The closure from his Silver Lake Sibling restaurant, all day baby.
He currently occupies the 15th position in the list of best Los Angeles Times 101 restaurants.
Several factors contributed to the decision, TA told The Times, but one won bigger than the rest: 2024 Whitener's deathAt 36, who sent shock waves through the culinary community of Los Angeles.
“With the death of chef, I really couldn't see how we were going to continue,” Ta.
Lien and Jonathan Whitener photographed here are looking at you in 2023.
(Annie Noelker / for The Times)
The restorer also attributes business loss after pandemic, but says there was no concern for a rental increase, and that a kitchen chief could have found or turned the concept completely.
The most important factor in the decision was Whitener's loss.
“The truth is that I created this restaurant with Jonathan, and he is eternally my collaborator,” he said. “The remaining team agrees that we want this to remain Jonathan's restaurant. We are missing our leader. Sign for another five -year lease contract makes no sense when its leader has gone.”
Ta left a role in entertainment journalism to pursue full -time hospitality, and worked as a manager in the Jon & Vinny's restaurants when he met Whitener, then animal kitchen chef.
Jonathan Gold He characterized his kitchen such as “strong flavors, acidity shaking and torn Asian herbs, and a tendency to fill touches of Umami in almost every time belonging.”
“Eating his food,” said Ta, “raised my soul.”
Whitener, on the left, seen cooking through the kitchen window here is looking at you in 2016.
(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)
He realized that he could be the chef he had been looking for: someone to associate in a restaurant, half of the operation that could supervise the planning of the kitchen and the menu while directed the front of the house.
In 2016 they turned an old Cheestek store in Philadelphia in a Bistro Nouveau where Whitener's mackerel was mixed with calendulas, baseball steak combined with french fries and some plates, such as the rib-just rib -ojo, the shishito peptas on tonato and the frog legs with necla sauce, became the modern classics of the modern classics of the.
It quickly caused national praise, landing in the best Food & Wine lists, Eater and more. At the local level, it became an accessory in the La Times 101 list. It served as a central piece to “become a restorer (master's degree at work) by Patric Kuh”, a book on Whitener's fights and triumphs in the construction of one of the most modern restaurants in the country.
When the pandemic hit, here it is looking at you, it was still strengthening. It closed for 17 months due to COVID-19, then it was reopened in 2022 to great acclamationAlthough Ta tells The Times that the restaurant has been “executing Delgado in the kitchen”, limiting its staff because business never achieved pre-pondemic success again. The following years brought additional difficulties.
“I think many of us have had to deal with [closing] Being a possibility or a result, “said TA,” and has been slow in many Los Angeles businesses since the blows. “
Business began to drip in 2023 during the entertaining industry strikes, which stopped income for multiple local industries, including Los Angeles restaurants.
In 2024 the unthinkable happened. Whitener died, unexpectedly, at home; His death left Ta feeling unnoticed. The local chefs gathered at the restaurant, including the co -owner of Ronan Chef Daniel Cutler, who served as a resident chef for a while.
The catastrophe played again at the beginning of 2025, when The Eaton and Palisades shoot It destroyed thousands of houses and other structures. With the city in agitation, TA said the restaurant also saw a significant fall in income. During the last two years, TA said that he has seen “this pendulum swing” from 30% to 40% of sales losses due to circumstances outside their control, and would be fortunate if even half of the dining room were full.
She tried to pivot changing here is looking at your business schedule, changing from an operation from Thursday to a model from Tuesday to Saturday. The lack of business on Sunday and Monday night could be especially depressing. On Mondays, considered for a long time a night of the industry for hospitality workers, they were no longer lucrative because those in the restaurant and bars industry lack the available income they once had. I hoped that I no longer compete with the television premieres and Sunday sports that help.
The hamburger with cheese of dry age in here, here is looking at you, quickly became one of the upper hamburgers in Los Angeles.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
“I would wake up with this horrible fear all the time, wondering if someone was going to reserve a reservation or enter at all, and who were going to cut [from service]”Said Ta.” We were always running half the team, and that simply does not feel good. “
It wasn't until she closed Your Silver Lake restaurant, all day babyIn December, she was able to reflect completely on the future here, and on her own personal needs.
In later months, TA says that he has been friendlier for herself and that she dealt with the necessary needs as visiting a doctor. She has begun to afford to cry, not only Whitener, but also a father figure whom she lost months later.
“I was definitely buried in great pain,” he said. “I am still afflicted, but sometimes I was not really sure what to focus on this last year, to be honest … Many restaurant owners are scheduled to always find solutions, spend the day or week or whatever your metric. I have been doing that for a long time.”
Before the termination of the lease and years of professional and emotional turbulence, he made the decision to close this year. Ta said that making Instagram's announcement was “deeply emotional”, but that he felt relief by finally revealing the news; He had alerted his staff in March.
When he entered the work on Tuesday night, stress began to dissipate. The restaurant was filled with fans who get the final tastes. A company of Magic Castle artists even traveled through the city when listening to the news, dressing combining here that they look at you, then they performed magic tricks for the other guests in the dining room (they will perform a Magic show on Friday night Otherwise, fundraising for victims of forest fires).
The reservations for the rest of the restaurant race are almost completely reserved, although TA plans to reserve space to visit beyond the seats in the bar.
The next few weeks you will see new goods, as well as the return of Tiki emerging fever of the waiters Joanne Martínez and Jesse Sepúlveda (a baby veterinarian all day) on May 19. Other familiar faces Not us without you COFUNDADOR DAMIAN DÍAZ.
After June 13, TA is not sure of what is coming later. In the closing announcement he wrote that “this lease contract is ending, as is [her] It was like a restorer. “She tells the times that maybe one day she could return to the world of the restaurant, but not for a long time;
Ta and Whitener outside the restaurant shortly after its reopening in 2022.
(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
Operating a restaurant in normal circumstances is demanding and stressful. Operating two through a pandemic of attacks throughout the industry that led to the economic recession, and forest fires throughout the city is anything but normal.
“The last five years have been completely implacable and hostile, and it is not healthy, frankly, and I have done my best,” Ta. “I have really exceeded all the limits.”
What she knows is that she will continue to defend small businesses through her voluntary work with the Independent Hospitality CoalitionWhere his partner, Eddie Navarrette, serves as executive director.
Sometimes he imagines herself in the moonlight as a supervisor on duty in a restaurant that really cares, or advising younger restorers who need guidance and commercial knowledge.
“But the first is the first, I just need to close the [Here’s Looking at You] Chapter of the way I think he deserves, “said Ta.” I am afraid of many things, but in a strange way, I am not necessarily afraid of what will happen to me. “
