Alice Waters Opens First-Ever LA Restaurant with LULU at the Hammer Museum
The Chez Panisse legend heads south of the Bay along with chef David Tanis.
The long-awaited debut of Alice Waters' first-ever LA project is finally here: LULU has opened inside UCLA’s Hammer Museum in Westwood. The restaurant is the brainchild of both Waters (of the legendary Chez Panisse) and Hammer director Ann Philbin, with longtime Waters collaborator David Tanis helming the menu.
The restaurant is mission-driven, with an ethos that advocates for school-supported agriculture. Committed to sourcing from local regenerative farms, Tanis and his team visited over a dozen farms in the LA area before selecting sources for the restaurant, as well as from local farmers markets. The menu is lunch-only and prix-fixe to begin, and will change daily, based on availability and seasonality. Recent sample menus include courses like a kabocha squash soup with chive cream; a grilled chicken salad with walnuts, persimmons, pomegranate seeds and treviso; and an apple-quince galette. A small a la carte menu also offers items like black bean soup, eggplant banh mi on focaccia, and beef stew with wild mushrooms and mash.
The wine list will focus on biodynamic producers as well as female winemakers. The cocktail menu from Rosemary West will also be driven by seasonal ingredients and also includes a non-alcoholic selection.
The design of LULU was led by artist Christina Kim, founder of the fashion brand, Dosa, and Sean Daly who has designed sets for Hollywood. With an indoor-outdoor setup, the space is marked by inviting green banquettes, light fixtures hanging from trees, and artwork throughout. Craft Landscape Architects provided landscape design of the many plant species on the property. The restaurant’s tabletops were created in partnership with Angel City Lumber to source wood from fallen trees including a 50-year-old Bunya Bunya located two miles from the museum. A mosaic wall from artist Jorge Pardo ties everything together.
LULU is open Tues-Sunday for lunch only and will open for dinner in the coming months. Book reservations via Resy.