The sloping View Park-Windsor Hills neighborhood bustles during the day as residents grab smoothies from Simply Wholesome market, order pies from Crustees or walk the track at Reuben Engold Park. But with few late-night dining and nightlife options, the unincorporated community turns sleepy after dark.
That’s changing with the opening of Somerville, a swanky spot on Slauson Avenue from partners Yonnie Hagos and Ajay Relan of GVO Hospitality, behind five locations of Hilltop Coffee (including one just next door) and Lost, a Mexico City-inspired rooftop in downtown. With modern continental cuisine and a full cocktail menu with live bands that take the stage every night, the space brings the supper club model to a South L.A. neighborhood steeped in Black history.
The immersive lounge pays homage to Central Avenue, a once-thriving thoroughfare that, for decades, served as the heartbeat of L.A.’s Black community with a strip of jazz and blues clubs that brought big-name musicians such as Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday to their stages. The restaurant is named after Hotel Somerville, a former mainstay on the avenue that’s since been converted into Dunbar Hotel, a senior living center.
“We wanted to create our version of what that era might have been,” said Relan.
Since Somerville launched last November, it’s not uncommon to see clusters of guests draped in stylish furs and beaded gowns idling near the Slauson and Overhill intersection, hoping to snag a seat at what’s quickly become one of the city’s toughest reservations.
The lounge belongs to a growing supper club scene in Los Angeles, one that spans a long-running showcase in Los Feliz, a Glassell Park sandwich shop that flips to an evening jazz club and a clandestine wine bar in Highland Park.
Here are nine L.A. supper clubs to visit next time you’re craving dinner alongside a live show.