Industriel, DTLA

Stopped by the newly opened Industriel in downtown LA over the weekend for a quick dinner, and loved everything from the food to the service to, of course, the design :) ::.

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Can you believe this used to be a two-story Carl’s Jr.? I often walk by here so I have been patiently waiting for this place to open. It took a while, but even in a neighborhood where a cool new concept restaurant or bar seems to be opening every other week, this place stands out as very well done.

The restaurant theme is urban farm French, and I love that everything matches this theme, but doesn’t match each other. If that makes sense. There’s a huge chandelier in the front waiting area with a row of canned foods lined beneath. It seems part medieval banquet hall, part barnhouse glam. A few steps away plastic honey bear containers are suspended from a lower ceiling to create a totally different second chandelier (and one of the coolest I have seen in recent memory). My least favorite part is ironically the entrance, where two huge, slightly depressing portraits flank the doors. I’m sure others find this quaint and artistic.

Anyway past the honey bears and through the woods (not really), the downstairs dining space has a cozy casual restaurant feel with red chairs and tree lined wallpaper. We chose to eat upstairs in the darker lounge area; oversized armchairs seemed a bit more inviting at that point. Plus there’s a naked lady on the wall.

Everything sounds good on the menu. I have to admit it may well have been an SNL satire on foodie yuppie/hipsters. All the “hot” ingredients are there, and of course they’re farm fresh :p. We dont know what’s good so we ended up just listening to our incredibly nice server. I really liked the duck & hibiscus sauce entree and the farro & lebna yogurt salad (thank you under-the-table google search :) ), but of course I am most delighted by this curly little green vegetable, a “fiddlehead fern.” Seriously? Fiddlehead fern? Did you just have the hobbits pluck that from the Shire? I love it. The taste isn’t anything too new but it’s so cute.

That Angel’s Share book held many a happy sounding drink, but we had to rush out. Delighted face is now sad face. We will be back!

UPDATE: the designer of this space found my post, I was so happy! Check out FLO Designs’ website and Facebook page. I hope to see more of Megan’s Tagliaferri’s fun, creative designs around LA :) designers make living better.