Brique French Toastery Changes Location In Century City

About a year and a half ago, I told you about the appearance of Brique French Toastery on the ground floor of The Westfield Century City Shopping Center, directly underneath Del Frisco’s.  They recently gave up that location, but all is not lost.  They will be moving to a new location on the second floor, near Din Tai Fun.  Until then, Brique has a temporary space in a kiosk near California Pizza Kitchen where you can still get your hands on their proprietary “Rock Toast” (thick cut brioche French toast topped with proprietary peanut butter coconut maple syrup, toasted coconut chips, and vanilla whipped cream).

Roca Pizza Coming To Pacific Palisades

North Swathmore Ave. in Pacific Palisades continues its move toward becoming a destination-worthy restaurant row.   More evidence: Roca Pizza is settling into the tony street at 1061 N Swathmore.  Roca Pizza is the latest project from California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) Co-founder Rick Rosenfield and his wife Esther and will feature pies with long-refrigerated dough baked in imported Italian ovens.  They currently have a location in Glendale, and they are planning on a Marina Del Rey location as well at 4700 Admiralty (in Waterside Marina Del Rey).  This location is shooting for an early 2023 opening.

CPK Gets A New Home In Manhattan Village

If you read this blog, then you know that I’ve been tracking the progress as Manhattan Village, on the corner of Sepulveda and Rosecrans, undergoes its massive overhaul.  Here’s the latest:  California Pizza Kitchen is getting a flashy new home across from the branch of US Bank.  Check out more details on the mall’s transformation here.

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Here’s A Glimpse Inside The New Westfield Century City…

Like so many of you who keep checking this blog for updates, I too am excited and anxious to see what the new Westfield Century City Shopping Center is going to look like.  Recently, a new wing of the glam mall opened, albeit with few stores open yet.  Although much of this has been reported, here’s a look at what’s coming to the food scene…

 

 

Here’s What’s Going On In Century City…

As you know, I’ve been carefully watching the developments during the renovation of the Westfield Century City Shopping Center.  As we get closer to the unveiling of the glitzy new dining and shopping destination, here are the latest developments.  While much of this has already been reported, this is what you can actually see:

What’s Now Closed:

Coral Tree Express finally closed in the mostly boarded up food court.

coraltree

Tenacious Breadbar vacated its first floor location.

breadbar

The Hillstone Restaurant Group’s Gulfstream is now gone.

gulfstream

What’s Coming:

California Pizza Kitchen has an ABC license posted on the second floor.

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Manhattan Beach’s Petros Benekos will be bringing his Greek/Californian cooking north with an outpost of Petros Speakeasy on the second floor.

petros

Signs have gone up confirming that Orange County’s wildly popular Mexican restaurant Javier’s is indeed moving into the old Season’s 52 space.

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And if you look carefully at the Gulfstream photo above, you’ll see mentioned that Taiwanese noodle and dumpling experts Din Tai Fung is coming along with the wildly-anticipated and oft reported Eataly.

What’s now open:

LA’s latest branch of New York’s popular Shake Shack opened last week to long lines.

shakeshack

Santa Monica Farmhouse Coming Soon To Downtown Santa Monica

Recently I noticed a small pending development permit taped to the front of the building that used to house eclectic design bookshop Hennessey + Ingalls at 214 Wilshire Blvd in Downtown Santa Monica.  If you look carefully at the notice, you can see that the space is being redesigned to change use from a retail space into a full service restaurant.  And what will be the name of the new eatery, that will be sandwiched between Hillstone and California Pizza Kitchen?  The permit lists the applicant as Santa Monica Farmhouse.  There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of information out there yet, just some details of the trademark, but I’ll keep watching.

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Farmhouse1

Farmhouse2

Bottlefish Set To Shake Things Up In Brentwood

Recently, I noticed that signs have gone up on space #200 in Brentwood Gardens that used to house Daily Grill at 11677 San Vicente Blvd. in Brentwood announcing that a brand new entity, Bottlefish appears to be moving in.  I couldn’t track down much on Bottlefish until I checked the ABC license application.  It indicates that the familiar names behind Bottlefish are Richard Rosenfield and Larry Flax, the founders of California Pizza Kitchen (they have since sold CPK a number of years back).  I’m not sure what the concept here will be, but I’m going out on a limb and guessing that fish will feature heavily, and possibly bottles too.  No word on an opening date, and construction is only just beginning, but I’ll keep watching.

Update:  Bottlefish is now open as of 12/08

Bottlefish