An eclectic debut in West Hollywood by Southern chef Sean Brock (of Husk fame in Charleston and Nashville) celebrates his passions: vinyl music and sustainable, live-fire cooking. It’s a place where you can begin or end your night with cocktails and tunes.
Wallpaper* dines at Darling, Los Angeles
The mood: stylised Hi-Fi lounge
The entry space is a bar-lounge fashioned after a vinyl-only, hi-fi listening den in Japan, complete with seven custom speakers (designed in collaboration with DJ MAXV), abundant greenery, and a retractable canopy ceiling. Here, you can sip on a roasted aubergine cocktail by bar director Jason Lee while enjoying quirky musical mixes that won’t be found on Shazam – many pulled from Brock’s own expansive vinyl collection of more than 5,000 45s.
The interiors, designed by Sean Leffers, feature raw walnut panelling, birch plywood, hand-cut ceramic tiles, and a pebble-flecked concrete floor, creating a richly tactile environment. Artworks by Mose Tolliver, Peter Tomka, and Santiago Quesnel are woven throughout, but anchoring the formal dining room is Legal Tender: a 23ft piece by Narsiso Martinez, inspired by Mexican muralism and Dada collage. The enlarged banknote features a central portrait of an undocumented California farmworker from Mexico, flanked by masked, goggled labourers in the fields.
The food: Wood fire meets California’s fresh bounty
Brock and chef de cuisine Ben Norton offer a focused, rotating menu of just 12 dishes, each designed to highlight the best of West Coast ingredients with subtle Japanese influences. Central to the kitchen is a custom, hand-forged wood-burning grill, where the team experiments with different types of wood (from fragrant orange tree to robust red oak) to achieve unique layers of flavour. The opening menu includes Shigoku oysters on ice with bonny melon juice and borage, and a red oak-grilled bone-in strip steak served with Swiss chard and black truffle. Other highlights include citrus wood-grilled Wolfe Ranch quail with huckleberries and nasturtium-avocado purée, as well as a delicate venison tartare. A limited number of 24-day dry-aged burgers will also be available daily until they sell out.
Darling is located at 631 N Robertson Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069, United States.
-
Ashlyn, the quietly romantic New York label from a Yohji Yamamoto alumnaThe focus of our latest Uprising column, Seoul-born Ashlyn Park worked for fashion greats before starting her own label in 2020. Showing her S/S 2026 collection at NYFW yesterday, she talks to Wallpaper* about marrying Japanese influences with the romance of Parisian savoir-faire
-
'There is no way light and darkness are not in exchange with each other': step inside Christelle Oyiri’s sonic world in BerlinIn an explosion of light and sound, Christelle Oyiri explores celebrity, mythology and religion inside CANK, a former brutalist shopping centre in Berlin’s Neukölln
-
A family home turns into an immersive exhibition space for London Design FestivalCeramicist Emma Louise Payne displays design in domestic surrounds for group show ‘The Objects We Live By’
-
The best dinner party in San Francisco is thrown at this bistro and vinyl barA new chapter begins in Mission Creek as Side A opens in the former Universal Café space
-
Daisy Margarita Bar reimagines the Mexican tavern with vaquero flair in Los AngelesFrom frozen guacamole margaritas to lamb shank with frijoles puercos, this new Sherman Oaks destination mixes playful gastronomy with tradition
-
Javier's, a new cathedral-inspired restaurant in downtown LA, offers a divine take on Mexican cuisineAt the restaurant's newest location, discovery lies around every corner – and on every plate
-
Why everyone in LA is talking about Café TondoHelmed by chef Valeria Velásquez and designed by Aunt Studio, this new spot delivers Latin American buzz all day long
-
Size doesn’t matter at Now Now, a micro-hotel for solo travellers in New YorkCan you pack style into 32 square feet? We find out
-
At this LA dining hotspot, go Spanish or Japanese as you pleaseA dual-concept dining destination designed by the Rockwell Group brings Mediterranean warmth and Japanese precision to Century City
-
The Benjamin’s chic new upstairs bar is Hollywood’s hottest hideawayAt Bar Benjamin, speakeasy mystique meets elevated snacks, cocktails and views
-
More is more at Bar Issi, a maximalist new dining destination in Palm SpringsFettle studio fuses eco-conscious materials with bold design gestures in this playful space inside the new Thompson Hotel
