2024 saw the long-awaited return of two lauded Los Angeles tasting-menu restaurants (Vespertine and Somni), and James Beard Award-winning chef Dave Beran recently added a heavy hitter to the mix: his highly personal and hotly anticipated new Santa Monica restaurant SELINE.
Angelenos best know Beran for his acclaimed nearby French bistro pasjoli, but he incidentally got his LA start at the now-shuttered tasting-menu restaurant Dialogue in 2017—around the same time that the original Somni and Vespertine opened.
“It’s an exciting time in LA,” Beran says. “If any one of these restaurants opened this year, people would be talking about it, but all of these spots help bring the city into the national conversation.”
Plus, Beran is among the group of 100 top chefs hosting events at the beloved Ojai Food + Wine festival being held at Ojai Valley Inn from March 13 to 16 this year. Head to Ojai Food + Wine’s website to purchase tickets to the exciting line-up of seminars, cooking demos, epic dinners and so much more.
Read on to see what makes SELINE a one-of-a-kind destination in Los Angeles, and secure your spot by booking on OpenTable.
Where to sit
Beran designed SELINE to feel like “a comfortable Midwestern home,” he says, starting with the garden courtyard diners walk through to reach the dining room. “It almost feels like you’re walking in the back door, which is how friends always came in at my grandparents’ house,” Beran adds.
Inside, the sweeping space is done up in dark blue and gray hues with banquettes designed like couches and an open kitchen that’s front and center to make it feel more intimate. Nearly every table has an unobstructed view of the kitchen, so there’s truly not a bad seat in the house.
What to eat
Instead of the typical tasting menu progression of a series of small bites, expect six-to-seven courses highlighting one ingredient for a total of 15 to 18 dishes over the course of a meal. Right now, that translates to mushrooms, squash, and squab, among other ingredients. “The traditional tasting menu follows the idea that if you use basil once, you never use it again,” Beran says. “The problem is that you never truly explore and embrace an ingredient.”
The mushroom course, for instance, has mushroom tea, chawanmushi with matsutake mushrooms, and trout roe dressed with beech mushrooms and spruce oil.
What to drink
pasjoli’s beverage director Matthew Broadbine came up with the wine pairings, and you’ll find six to seven heftier pours—more than what you’d get with a typical multi-course menu. The focus is on thoughtful producers and special bottles; Of the six wines currently being poured, one is from 1985 and another is from 1995. There’s also a non-alcoholic pairing option featuring housemade drinks like a banana and kombucha flip. “Nothing is just a tea or just a juice,” Beran says of the zero-proof creations.
Karen Palmer is a pizza- and pasta-obsessed food writer based in Los Angeles. She is the former editorial director of Tasting Table, and her work has appeared in Eater, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, and many other publications. Follow her on Instagram at @karenlpalmer.
