Issa Rae’s new restaurant, Somerville, offers a glamorous homage to 1920s Los Angeles.
For most of the 1930s and 40s, the hottest nightspot in Los Angeles was on the bottom floor of an elegant Art Deco hotel in South Central. During the week, the Somerville Hotel served as a luxurious respite for Black celebrities and dignitaries, the only major hotel in the city open to Black guests.
But on Saturdays, the hotel’s nightclub turned into the city’s most exclusive and glamorous party in town, drawing jazz luminaries like Ella Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker and Duke Ellington.
Closed since the 1970s, the new restaurant in View Park-Windsor Hills is hoping to revive the Somerville Hotel’s magic.
Somerville, which opened along the Slauson Corridor in late November, is a glamorous ode to its namesake. The dinner spot is the latest venture from none other than Issa Rae, creator of HBO’s Insecure, and restaurateurs Yonnie Hagos and Ajay Relan.
The three are already co-owners of Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen, a local mini-chain of casual daytime eateries with five locations across Los Angeles. Somerville is the first restaurant from the team, and their most ambitious venture to date.
Rae, Hagos and Relan all grew up in Windsor Hills, and hoped to create a space that channeled the rich history of South L.A., but still felt modern.
“We wanted to create a 2020s version of that era, but not [necessarily do] a jazz club. We wanted to look forward while celebrating the progress in between,” Relan told Eater LA.
Hagos, Relan and Rae worked with Bootsy Bellows designer John Sofio on the restaurant’s meticulous interior design, inspired by the seminal jazz clubs which lined South Central’s Central Ave. from the 1920s-50s.
The result feels like stepping back into time. Somerville’s Art Deco dining room features rich mahogany paneling, gold velvet banquettes and elegant Streamline Moderne light fixtures. The focal point of the room is a grand piano, backlit on a shallow, elegant stage, where live music is performed most nights.
Somerville’s menu is a modern but loving homage to the time period. Chef Geter Atienza, an alum of Bouchon and Broken Spanish, includes dishes served at the original Somerville Hotel, like warm Parker House rolls, a shrimp cocktail and mac and cheese. However Atienza infuses his menu with modern techniques and fine dining ingredients, like his fried chicken sliders with caviar and a delicious collard green lasagna.
The cocktail list, from Steen Bojsen-Møller, of Mr. Lyons in Palm Springs, also draws inspiration from the original Somerville, with drinks inspired by jazz greats like John Coltrane. A Love Supreme, named after Coltrane’s seminal 1965 album, includes Midori, Cointreau, and lemon.
Somerville is a full circle moment for Hagos and Relan, who opened the original Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen in the same complex in 2018. The two even toured the 5,000 square foot space in 2015, but weren’t sure of its commercial potential at the time, Relan told Eater LA.
“We’re from here but didn’t know if we would ever open anything here.”
Somerville
4437 W. Slauson Avenue, Los Angeles
Open Wednesdays through Sundays, 6-10 p.m.
