{"id":794053,"date":"2026-05-13T18:47:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/794053\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:47:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:47:29","slug":"daniel-patterson-and-sarah-lewitinns-jacaranda-has-opened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/794053\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Patterson and Sarah Lewitinn’s Jacaranda Has Opened"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Los Angeles restaurant scene has been in acute crisis<\/a> thanks to everything from the Trump administration\u2019s tariffs and Hollywood\u2019s business woes to rising labor costs and the normalization of GLP-1s. Yet the K-shaped economy has simultaneously nurtured a notable new generation of fine-dining<\/a> rooms, with the city witnessing a renaissance of tasting-menu-oriented spaces, from Kato, Hayato and Baroo to Somni, Seline, Ki and Lielle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe latest entrant is Jacaranda<\/a> on Melrose Ave. in Hancock Park, catty-corner to Nancy Silverton\u2019s Osteria Mozza and Jordan Kahn\u2019s Meteora. The 30-seat restaurant offers a single 10-course seating each evening. ($295 per person, not including beverage pairings.) It marks the return after a long absence of the chef Daniel Patterson to the New American modernist cuisine that sealed his reputation \u2014 James Beard award, multiple Michelin stars \u2014 at San Francisco\u2019s since-shuttered Coi.<\/p>\n

\n\tMost Angelenos familiar with Patterson\u2019s work in L.A. know him for Locol, his socially conscious fast-food concept with chef Roy Choi, and more recently the California-style soul food spot Alta Adams<\/a>. Now, with Jacaranda, he\u2019s locked back into conceptual experimentalism with everything from stuffed morels to roasted kelp. The goal is \u201cmaking things taste very intensely like themselves,\u201d Patterson says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of work in that. Complex to do, simple to appreciate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSoft tofu with fresh seaweed and caviar at Jacaranda.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWonho Frank Lee<\/p>\n

\n\tHis partner in the venture is wife, Sarah Lewitinn, a former DJ and music industry impresario who helped break acts like My Chemical Romance and The Killers. Jacaranda began as a pop-up dinner party in their home, and Lewitinn \u2014 who\u2019s also long worked in marketing and events \u2014\u00a0now presides as the dining room\u2019s offbeat grand dame, especially in sparking unfiltered conversations at the communal table. \u201cOddly enough, I\u2019ve found that if you slip and say \u2018fuck,\u2019 it gets people to chill the fuck out,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s an element of chaos with Sarah that I love,\u201d Patterson explains. \u201cFine dining is so much about control, and we\u2019re super-serious about the cooking. But what we\u2019re trying to accomplish here \u2014\u00a0create this mom-and-pop restaurant that happens to be serving high-level food \u2014 benefits from her instinct to strip away inherited expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne area of creative tension for the couple: The soundtrack, a largely nostalgic mix that runs from Bj\u00f6rk to Elliott Smith. \u201cDaniel and I have clashed,\u201d Lewitinn says. \u201cI want to have a lot of Hole\u2019s \u2018Live Through This.\u2019 He finds that to be a bit aggressive. So, I\u2019ve been playing \u2018Celebrity Skin\u2019 instead. It\u2019s a vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe dining room at Jacaranda in Hancock Park.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRob Stark<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles restaurant scene has been in acute crisis thanks to everything from the Trump administration\u2019s tariffs…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":794054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,20947,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-794053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-dining","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116568762763773568","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}