One of Los Angeles’ less well known ‘hoods is Hayden Tract. Once a thriving industrial zone and latterly notorious for its drug trade, in recent years, the area has, with gentrification and lower real estate values, become a hotbed for start-ups, media studios and experimental architecture.
No surprises that Hayden Tract has also been reeling in a posse of lively eateries, not least Brooklyn’s Roberta’s which has just opened its first West Coast outpost in the first floor of Platform, an old car dealership that was transformed into a lively mixed-use development in 2016 by Abramson Teiger Architects.
Kentucky-based Studio Jesse James, co-founded by Jesse Voigt who’d worked on the original Platform project, has evidently had fun reimagining the space which was inspired by, of all things, a folded slice of pizza. Its triangular geometry insinuating itself into every corner of the irregularly-shaped room, whether in the massive planes of concrete breeze blocks that rise along walls and fold over the ceiling, or the hanging stick lights.
What might otherwise have been an overwhelmingly grey mood board is casually lightened by a rainbow of high-backed stools, blue-stained knotty pine wood, and line drawn murals painted by local artists, inspired by LA’s botany, surfers and body builders.
Executive chef Carlo Mirarchi’s Italian-American menu, meanwhile, features crowd-pleasers like juicy slabs of dry-aged rib-eyes, and pizzas draped with soppressata and honey. §
