Chef Travis Lett Is Opening a New Izakaya RVR in Venice This Summer | Eater LA
"Opening this summer in the former MTN space at 1305 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, RVR (pronounced “river”) is Chef Travis Lett’s long-gestating California–Japanese izakaya that emphasizes everyday Japanese food rather than a high-end omakase experience. Lett frames the menu around homemade noodles and really long extracted bone broths, a substantial pickled/fermentation program, grilled fish and meats, a little sashimi and hand rolls, and pronounced vegetable dishes sourced from seasonal California farmers markets; examples called out include seasonal ramen bowls, bottarga-topped little gems, grilled salmon lunch sets, chopped tuna temaki rolls, and mushroom mazeman. The program aims to be accessible—equally fine for a bowl of ramen and a beer or for multiple courses—and will feature cocktails with a dedicated highball program and an adventurous wine pairing approach led by wine director Maggie Glasheen. Lett, who stresses that he isn’t Japanese but honours the traditions through rigorous research, draws on a childhood steeped in macrobiotic Japanese foods and years of travel and kitchen work in Japan; he’s bringing two chefs from Japan (Ian Robinson and Cean Geronimo) and has launched the Sonnyboy Hospitality platform with investor Alan Karp. The dining room, reworked by Matt Winter Design to feel warmer and more comfortable than the stone-and-steel MTN aesthetic, already sees long waits during prime dinner times, with reports of up to two-hour waits and roughly 100 people packed into the compact room; finish a meal with a silver cup of black sesame and matcha gelato topped with toasted soba flakes." - Cathy Chaplin
