Echo Park

"The Park will close in March, according to The Eastsider. The Echo Park restaurant opened 12 years ago, and made the announcement by email." - Mona Holmes

"There’s only one more week to experience One Top, a surreal new underground dining experience that is part art installation, part personal reflection, and all sorts of interesting. Instead of operating as a true performance space or warehouse filled with hanging images, 67 Steps is instead a semi-hidden collection of buildings populating a small plot of Echo Park hillside not far from upstart Australian cafe Pollen. So what is One Top specifically? It’s a restaurant, sort of. There’s a small room, maybe six feet wide by 10 or 12 feet long, mostly white and empty save for a single outdoor cafe table and chair. The table itself holds a number of real, edible things that ultimately make up an entire meal, from things like tinned fish to cheeses and drinks. The menu changes based on Baldwin’s whims, and a meal inside comes with a handwritten menu and set of directions. Baldwin allowed Eater to dine at the pop-up last week, and the experience is interesting to say the least. While there is a curated menu, a set reservation time, and an actual meal, there is no service, no ambiance save for the sounds outside the small room, and no other instructions on what to see/feel/do/eat, other than to lock up and leave the key when done. One Top diners literally don’t interact with a single person the entire time, and can stay as long (or as short) as they’d like. There are some other small decor elements that can be interacted with from within the room, but there are (or does not seem to be?) no right or wrong choices inside. So does One Top count as a restaurant, or at least a pop-up food experience? That’s a question for artist Dean Baldwin. For those not actually dining at One Top, a closed display of the meal can be seen through glass doors on the property during open walkthroughs at 67 Steps on Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. Those hoping to dine at One Top and experience what may be LA’s most obscure pop-up in a long time should try reaching out to 67 Steps Gallery directly to see what might be possible." - Farley Elliott