5 things to know about Lulu, the new Hammer Museum restaurant from Alice Waters and David Tanis
A dessert of olive oil walnut cake with pomegranate seeds may appear on the daily-changing menu at Lulu’s.(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) Lulu, a new restaurant and bar tucked into the courtyard of the Hammer Museum, is a collaboration between chefs Alice Waters and David Tanis, a partnership built on decades of friendship and working together at Waters’ Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Here are five things to know about Lulu.
This is not an Alice Waters restaurant — not really
Waters’ interest in seasonality and focus on local farming will be on full display. But Tanis is taking the lead.
“I’ve never wanted to have another restaurant — and I don’t have another restaurant,” Waters said. “I am cheerleading for a restaurant that I think is very important to have at the Hammer Museum.”
Hammer Museum director Ann Philbin approached Waters in 2020 about opening a restaurant in the available courtyard space. Noting the ties to a greater institution, Waters felt it could be similar to the Rome Sustainable Food Project at the American Academy in Rome, a project she helped found in 2006. If she could choose someone else to lead what would become Lulu, she would consider it — and she could think of no one else but Tanis.
Tanis, a seasoned chef, prolific cookbook author and New York Times columnist with a pedigree and understanding of natural flavor and culinary nuance, has headed kitchens in Berkeley, Santa Fe, N.M., Paris, New York City and beyond, and was ready for the task.
“Alice called me and said, ‘Say, how would you like to open a little restaurant in a museum in Los Angeles?’ And I said, ‘Oh yes, that sounds good,’” Tanis said. “I had just gone through the [early] pandemic myself, we’d kind of escaped to upstate New York for a while to get out of the city, and I was looking to do something new.”
Menu and format
The menu will change constantly. An a la carte menu could offer the likes of sandwiches, soups and salads, while a three-course prix fixe will allow Tanis to craft meals with a culinary narrative or arc, much like at Chez Panisse. Dishes — designed to be straightforward and unfussy — could include Sonoma goat cheese with garden lettuces and golden beets, and North African lamb tagine with saffron couscous.
“Our menu is very simple; it’s big, bright flavors but very simple preparation,” Tanis said. “There aren’t a lot of bells and whistles; if it’s a kale dish it won’t be kale cooked three different ways with a little kale powder on top.” — Stephanie Breijo, Nov. 18, 2021
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Los Angeles Times website.
HEADER IMAGE: Part of Lulu sits in the center courtyard of the Hammer Museum, where tables circle around two Chinese elm trees. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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