Quirky Brutalist-Meets-Victorian Cafe 2001 Opens in LA’s Arts District | Eater LA
"Opened on February 3, 2025, this new Arts District cafe next to Yess is a collaboration between Yess owner Kino Kaetsu and former Yess sous chef Giles Clark, a veteran of St. John in London, Den in Tokyo, and Chez Panisse in Berkeley, and transitions from a sunny daytime cafe to a vibey wine-bar hangout. Offerings include breezy pork tenderloin katsu sandwiches, egg and relish salad sandwiches, a BLT with Benedictine spread, and smoked trout with hash browns and huckleberries. Japanese convenience store-style sandwiches are cut into three parts and displayed cut sides up, served as a prelude or side dish to the cafe’s assortment of pastries, which include fruit tarts, chocolate and wild fennel cookies, lemon tarts, and almond jelly with grape and verjus coulis; drinks range from a matcha beer shandy, house-spiced coffee, and red shiso shrub to a curated set of natural wine and sake. Clark and Kaetsu quietly announced the project as 'Cafe Oh! No' in mid-November, reported the Los Angeles Times, with plans to open in mid-December; between then and late January they renamed it after the building’s address, though most of the original menu has been retained. Clark says the goal was to conjure the easygoing spirit of an American diner but with a “somewhere accessible for a steadying brew, satisfying feed, and a good hang,” a phrase that makes more sense when uttered in a British accent (Clark is from the U.K.). The space — a bi-level former bank whose walls have been stripped to exposed brick — pairs ornate but weathered Victorian chairs that look pulled from a grandma’s dining room with more modern furniture on the second floor; a commanding skylight offers ample sunlight while bare concrete reinforces a kind of Brutalist feeling. Once dinnertime rolls around, dishes include freshly shucked oysters with pickled chiles and citrus; a Dodger dog–length hot dog with Japanese pickles and potato salad; and pan-fried gyoza with carrot salad. Tables are covered with cloths during dinner service to gussy up the room while the stereo volume promotes a buzzy wine-bar vibe. The cafe was long imagined as a daytime companion to chef Junya Yamasaki’s modern Japanese restaurant, and it is open daily from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m." - Matthew Kang
