What's New in West Hollywood Beyond Sunset Boulevard

WeHoOnline reported that Sunset Boulevard reopened on July 24. If you live here, you already know that. What you may not know is that the reopening is temporary, and that the more interesting story about where West Hollywood is investing in itself right now isn't happening on Sunset at all.

For eight days in mid-July, a 36-inch LADWP water transmission trunk line broke beneath Sunset Boulevard near Holloway Drive, closing one of the most commercially dense blocks in the city while crews worked around the clock to weld, repressurize, and disinfect a new section of pipe. Businesses along the closure went more than a week without normal bookings or foot traffic. Some had no physical damage at all and still lost real income, which is why Laura Biery, the city's Director of Economic Development, and Jacob Shaw, interim president and CEO of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, spent the closure going door to door connecting affected businesses to LADWP's claims process rather than waiting for anyone to ask. When the street reopened, Mayor John Heilman thanked the crews and residents who got through it, adding, as WeHoOnline reported, that "we still have a lot to do to help our residents and businesses recover." That's the part worth sitting with. The paving on Sunset right now is explicitly temporary. LADWP still has to come back for permanent repaving and repairs to a bus pad and adjoining sidewalk, on a timeline the city hasn't set yet.

So the street is open. It isn't finished. And while everyone was watching a hole in the ground, the more telling development was happening two blocks south, on Santa Monica Boulevard, in a building most people drive past without a second look.

A Building With History Before It Had Groceries

At 8445 Santa Monica Boulevard sits a structure built in 1942 for Ritts Company Furniture, a business run by the parents of photographer Herb Ritts. It later became office space for the dot-com-era Hollywood Stock Exchange, then sat as creative office space for the better part of a decade. Dean McKillen and Phil Howard, the team behind Laurel Hardware on Santa Monica Boulevard and Ysabel a few blocks south, bought the site in the late 2010s and spent years on it before finally opening Laurel Supply there on May 8.

Its opening returned the building to a public-facing use after years as creative office space.

A Rooftop Restaurant on La Peer Drive

On March 16, SUSHISAMBA debuted at 639 N. La Peer Drive in the West Hollywood Design District, its first United States opening in more than a decade after years running only in London, Amsterdam, and Barcelona. The space is roughly 11,000 square feet on a rooftop with a retractable ceiling, a long marble bar, an open sushi kitchen, and private dining reached by its own dedicated elevator.

The venue's retractable roof and dedicated private-dining elevator are among its distinctive features. Another dining venue in the area, the Parisian all-day café Très LA, is inside the Pacific Design Center.

New Dining Concepts Along Sunset Boulevard

Further along Sunset, more dining projects are in development. Round 1 Delicious has signed a 19,300-square-foot lease at The Now, the mixed-use building at Sunset and La Cienega, for a Japanese food hall concept reportedly operating under the name Sora. The plan is eight separate restaurant stalls, including Tokyo-based Tempura Takiya and Sushikoma, most opening in the United States for the first time, spanning the building's first and second floors with no confirmed opening date yet.

A few blocks up, the h.wood Group, the team behind Delilah and The Nice Guy, announced Little Luck for 9229 W. Sunset, taking over the space that used to house their nightlife venue Bootsy Bellows. The concept is an elevated Japanese restaurant that had an announced target of late July, though as of this writing an opening date still hasn't been confirmed and the space remains in build-out.

Neither of these venues can serve you dinner tonight: Round 1 Delicious is planned as a Japanese food hall, while Little Luck is an elevated Japanese restaurant.

Restaurant Week and West Hollywood's New Dining Scene

Dine LA Restaurant Week runs August 14 through 28 this year, and the city's own promotional list for West Hollywood leads with names like Ardor at The West and The Roof at The West Hollywood EDITION. Notice what isn't on that list: Laurel Supply, SUSHISAMBA, Little Luck, Sora. Some of that is simple mechanics. Round 1 Delicious and Little Luck aren't open yet, so they structurally can't participate in a program built around existing prix-fixe menus. The list offers a snapshot of participating restaurants with existing prix-fixe menus, but it does not include all of the neighborhood's newest arrivals.

Laurel Supply, open since May, is one of the newer restaurants discussed here and is already serving diners.

The One Thing That Didn't Move

Every Monday, rain or shine, the Helen Albert Certified Farmers' Market sets up in Plummer Park's north parking lot at 1200 N. Vista Street, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., organic produce and fresh flowers and baked goods, the same as it's run for years. It didn't close for the water main break. It isn't waiting on a rooftop build-out. It doesn't care whether Sunset's paving is temporary or permanent.

That's worth noticing precisely because everything else covered here is in motion. Santa Monica Boulevard has restaurants from operators with other local spots, while Sunset is the site of several new dining projects. The market remains a steady weekly presence amid those changes.

Sunset is open, but permanent repaving and related repairs are still to come. The farmers market remains a steady weekly presence as dining projects continue to take shape on both corridors.

If a conversation about this market ever moves from where to eat tonight to something more permanent, Nancy Ellin Realty Group has spent years reading West Hollywood at exactly this level of detail. Reach out to request a private consultation when you're ready.