West Hollywood’s dining out options continue to expand with the announcement of two new restaurants. Innovative Dining Group, owner of SushiRoku, Boa, Delphine, Soleto and Katana, plans to open RivaBella, an Italian restaurant, in the former Hamburger Hamlet location at 9201 Sunset Blvd. at its intersection with Doheny Road and Cory Avenue. Hot N Juicy Crawfish, a chain with locations in Las Vegas, Orange County, Orlando, and Washington, DC, plans to open a restaurant at the West Hollywood Gateway mall at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and LaBrea. Neither firm has announced a firm opening date.
Gino Angelini, who owns the highly rated Angelini Osteria on Beverly Boulevard, is joining IDG as a partner and executive chef at RivaBella. Almost two-thirds of the 8,000-square-foot restaurant’s dining space will be devoted to an outdoor dining patio. The menu will include pizza, pastas, salads, antipasti, and entrees such as Sicilian-style branzino, porcini and gorgonzola pizza, braised wild boar with crispy polenta, and house-made saffron tagliatelle with prosciutto ragu. The space is being designed by Studio Collective of Santa Monica to resemble a Tuscan farmhouse.
Hot N Juicy, which has been featured on Cooking Channel’s Unique Eats and the Travel Channel’s Man V Food, is known for its Louisiana style crawfish. Its Cajun-style seafood menu also includes lobsters, shrimp, snow crab, king crab and clams, all delivered to the table in a plastic bag to be eaten with one’s bare hands.
Restaurant diners also are anticipating the opening soon of Connie and Ted’s by Michael Cimarusti, owner of Providence, and Craig Nickoloff, founder of the Claim Jumper chain. The restaurant, currently under construction at 8171 Santa Monica Blvd. at Havenhurst, will replace the former Silver Spoon diner. The owners haven’t announced an opening date or a menu. Also on schedule to open soon — possibly by the end of the year — is Don’t Tell Mama, restaurant and bar in the former O Bar space at 8279 Santa Monica Blvd. near Sweetzer. It will be an offshoot of the famed restaurant and cabaret by th same name in New York City, although its owners haven’t applied for a cabaret license.
The Brospeh Restaurant Group opened Smoke, a steakhouse, in September at 9010 Melrose Ave. near North Almont and opened Fatty’s Public House at 829 N. La Cienega Blvd. near Willoughby in August.
