If you can make it in New York, Frank Sinatra crooned, you can make it anywhere. But that doesn’t necessarily apply to Los Angeles dining. Scene-centric New York restaurants that have attempted to set up outposts in this town have a decidedly mixed business record. Roberta’s, Avra and Dante achieved their own local buzz. Five Leaves quickly died. Rao’s persists, albeit with no heat. It’s too soon to tell with new arrivals Marea and Cipriani. Now comes Alba, an offshoot of the Chelsea original Alba Cucina, to a Melrose Avenue address first suggested by Mark Birnbaum, the co-founder of neighboring Catch, which itself successfully migrated from the Meatpacking District nearly a decade ago.
Alba specializes in what business partner Cobi Levy terms “holiday Italian.” This is a cuisine and decor that’s unconcerned with the strictures of geography or authenticity. What matters is attitude and approach. “We didn’t want to be locationally referential,” notes Levy, whose other dining ventures include Little Prince and Lola Taverna. “We wanted a breezy, cosmopolitan feeling.” In practice, this means a space inspired by designer Gio Ponti’s effervescence and a menu, from Marc Vetri protégé Adam Leonti, that runs from cacio e pepe potatoes and Calabrian tuna tartare to agnolotti with black truffle fondue. “We’re just using Italy, from its north to its south, to interpret the seasons,” says the chef.
One of the other partners, Carbone alum Julian Black, explains that “we’re trying to capture that idea of sprezzatura,” the Italian concept of unfussy elegance. “It’s reflective in everything we’re doing here — from how the servers are dressed to the way the wine program operates.” Adds the son of The Equalizer producer Todd Black — alluding to the rough go of it this town has had of late, with wildfires, strikes and streaming contractions — “this is a movie town. Just as people go to the movies to escape, we want them to come to Alba and know the feeling of escape, if only for a two-hour meal.”
This story appeared in the March 6 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.