BY STEPHANIE BREIJOSTAFF WRITER
NOV. 29, 2022 6:27 PM PT
Vessel by Match Stoneware.
After garnering two Michelin stars, glowing reviews and a “discovery” nod from the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, one of L.A.’s most lauded tasting-menu restaurants closed two years ago with little notice. Next year, it’s set to return.
Somni, from chefs Aitor Zabala and José Andrés, sprouted passion fruit tulips from chocolate dirt; arranged tuna katsu into the shape of a battle ax before it could be coated in saffron and caviar; and injected strawberry-shaped cocoa butter nubs with vermouth, strawberry purée and Aperol until its closure in August 2020, creating some of the most whimsical dishes available in L.A. during its brief run. In late summer 2023, Zabala will reprise the concept in West Hollywood, with additional seating and new items.
The restaurant’s cuisine, sometimes experienced in upward of 20 courses — seasonal ingredients depending — was described by Times food critic Bill Addison as one that “blurs the line between whimsy and academia, between applied theory and cheeky cleverness”: difficult to pinpoint, harder still to categorize under any nationality.
“The circle was never closed with Somni; it was interrupted,” Zabala said by phone. “Everyone closed in the pandemic, but it was not natural, you know? [There was] something missing, and I was feeling that it’s not the right ending for a dream — and I am the person always looking for the next dream, but this dream, I was feeling there was no ending.”
The closure was credited largely to the COVID-19 pandemic, though it also occurred amid a lawsuit filed by the SLS Hotel’s ownership that would shutter both Somni and Andrés’ the Bazaar, which was also housed on the ground floor of the property. The ending felt abrupt to the restaurants’ fans and staff alike. When they closed, Zabala said, they’d recently hit their stride with staffing and training and accolades. Though he could have launched a new project after the closure, he felt there was still more of Somni to explore.
The chef, who had dreamed of opening his own restaurant since he was 19 or 20, first moved to the U.S. in 2007, persuaded by Andrés to leave El Bulli during its seasonal closure and help him develop L.A.’s Bazaar. He returned to Spain and the kitchen of El Bulli, then in 2010 gave Los Angeles another chance, returning to Andrés and, with him in 2018, debuting Somni.
