It was a typical Thursday night outside Cipriani Beverly Hills. A thirtysomething woman wearing diamonds and a fur coat grabbed her date’s arm as she carefully exited a black Range Rover. The date, who wore a well-tailored suit, looked straight out of a Brunello Cucinelli ad. A few feet away, a paparazzo waited for Leonardo DiCaprio to make another appearance at Cipriani, a place he is known to frequent.
The restaurant, which opened in January, is already a staple for Los Angelenos. Located just two blocks west of Rodeo Drive, Cipriani seamlessly hosts young influencers and L.A.’s older, Establishment crowd. Here, the typical Southern California uniform of sweats and sneakers is not the norm. Servers constantly refresh white linens on the table before serving dishes like baked tagliolini with ham, calf’s liver alla Veneziana, and vanilla meringue cake.
Bringing the restaurant’s signature dishes to Beverly Hills happened when “the perfect location came along,” says Maggio Cipriani, president of Cipriani USA.
His great-grandfather, Giuseppe, opened Harry’s Bar in Venice back in 1931. Today, more than 30 Ciprianis operate around the world, from Milan to Ibiza to Abu Dhabi. One of the most beloved locations is the first Manhattan outpost, on the Upper East Side. It arrived on the scene in the 1980s and became so popular that six more Ciprianis popped up around the city.
During the pandemic, many of Manhattan’s most popular restaurants—Carbone, Cote, Rao’s, Sant Ambroeus—went south to Miami and Palm Beach. Now, it’s Los Angeles’s turn.
A paparazzo waited for Leonardo DiCaprio to make another appearance at Cipriani, a place he is known to frequent.
In October, Marea, the beloved Italian restaurant in New York’s Columbus Circle, will bring its signature dishes to Beverly Hills, just up the street from Cipriani. In Century City, Hollywood types predict that Milos, the midtown Manhattan power-lunch spot, will be all the rage with the Hollywood crowd. The Greek restaurant will go up across the street from CAA’s offices later this year.
The chef Daniel Boulud, who has colonized New York City with various restaurants, cafés, and a Centurion Lounge for black American Express cardholders, will bring Café Boulud, his French fine-dining spot, to the Mandarin Oriental Residences in Beverly Hills this fall. Boulud first considered the idea of a Los Angeles restaurant a decade ago, while filming After Hours with Daniel Boulud, a TV show about chefs around the country. “I spent two weeks cooking, eating, and drinking with local chefs and friends in L.A., and I really enjoyed my time there,” says Boulud. “I always thought that maybe one day I could have a restaurant in L.A. I knew it was meant to be. ”
“The addition of these restaurants makes you feel like you’re in New York or Europe,” says John Burnham, an Atlas Artists agent whose clients include Woody Allen, William H. Macy, and Rob Reiner. While he looks forward to the new options, he will keep regular spots—E. Baldi and Mr. Chow—in rotation.
Several New York City haunts already on the scene are thriving in Los Angeles. There’s the Greek restaurant Avra, the Brooklyn pizzeria Roberta’s, and Dante, the West Village Italian café and cocktail spot. In November 2020, NoHo’s Prince Street Pizza brought its Sicilian slices to Sunset Boulevard, in West Hollywood, after testing out the market with a pop-up. “People were waiting three hours to get a slice. It was easy to see Los Angeles needed an authentic New York pizzeria,” says Lawrence Longo, a partner in Prince Street.
Now, Prince Street has six locations throughout Los Angeles, from Malibu to Pasadena. To make the pizza, they have a water machine that mimics the minerals found in New York City’s tap water, which chefs often credit for the quality of pizzas and bagels. For the cheese, they haul it from the East Coast in a refrigerated truck.
“I love that some of my favorite places from the city are coming west,” says screenwriter Joyce Chang, an East Coast transplant. “Los Angeles and New York are very different food cities.” After all, Los Angeles is known more for its picky-modification-requesting patrons. Many popular restaurants—such as Craig’s, the Ivy, and Mastro’s—have had to adjust their menus by adding everything from vegan crab cakes to gluten-free pasta.
Some wonder if all these new spots will accommodate the demands of West Coast diners. That said, a century ago, Cipriani invented carpaccio for a countess who would only eat raw meat. It can’t be long before a vegan version appears on its Beverly Hills menu.
Susan Campos is a Los Angeles–based journalist and a former anchor for the Today show
