Hear the name the Witch’s Cottage and you might conjure a mystical vision. And inside the new North Hollywood space, here there be witches, yes. But that’s just the start of it.
In one area of the two-story cafe, restaurant and bar, constellations beckon. A guide to crystals calls forth in another. An azure booth is flanked by an abstracted mermaid sculpture, and elsewhere howling wolves are engraved into the bar tops.
Witch’s Cottage co-founder Celina Lee Surniak, left, with investor/partner Ana Lovelis and co-founder Danielle Ozymandias. The three envisioned a welcoming space that views the world through a magical lens.
Hidden wonders are everywhere. Circle the cottage’s hand-constructed tree trunks, and maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll spy a tiny door hiding a little witch. Sit at one of the tables, and don’t be surprised to hear the sounds of birds chirping from the man-made trees. Branches spring forth from paintings and every nook is a nod to something born of a fable.
A decade-long vision of the founders, the Witch’s Cottage has transformed the old Federal Bar into a colorful, whimsical fairy-tale-like forest of a gathering spot. A place where one can come for the fantasy, and stay for the chicken etouffee and the Hex Breaker, a tiki-style, rum-heavy drink for grown-up sorcerers.
“I wanted this to feel lived in,” says Danielle Ozymandias, who dreamed up the space with business partner Celina Lee Surniak, a fellow creative who like Ozymandias very much identifies as a witch. “I wanted this to be a visual feast because I think maximalism is just so interesting. That may be the ADHD talking, but I knew I wanted a lot.”
The dining room of the Witch’s Cottage aims for a fantasy forest-inspired look.
While they certainly designed the Witch’s Cottage to be family-friendly, Surniak and Ozymandias say part of their creative intent was to bring joy to adults.
“Everybody tries to shame you,” Surniak says. “Like, ‘You can’t buy that coffee. Save your money.’ No, let them have the coffee they really love. Let them get that annual pass to Disneyland. Let them have a weekly night at the movies, even if they go alone. The world is so weird right now. What we can do is find joy in tiny things.
A fairy at a media preview for North Hollywood’s new Witch’s Cottage.
“Being able to give adults the opportunity to say ‘I’m a fairy,’ is the best feeling ever,” Surniak continues. “And it’s not just at Renaissance fairs. Be a fairy here.”
Or be anyone. A sign near one of the restaurant’s restrooms makes it clear it doesn’t matter which one guests use. It asks that they simply wash their hands. “You can walk in as a witch, or a dragon, or just a FedEx worker,” Ozymandias says. “There’s no judgment.”
The Witch’s Cottage had its grand opening this weekend, and the community immediately responded with lines out the door. That wasn’t entirely surprising — the project was built by a collective. More than 200 volunteers donated more than 3,000 hours to bring the space to life, and the two founders attracted more than 100 investors via an online crowd-funding campaign that raised more than $167,000.
“We’re regular people,” Surniak says. “We don’t have a lot of money. We don’t have a nest egg. We don’t own property. If we were going to do anything, we would need help.”
Surniak says within three days of creating their campaign, they found an angel investor who offered them the funds to secure the building. Other investors followed, including Ana Lovelis and her husband Kenny Enea, known in the area for the elaborate haunted houses they have hosted at their home. The two joined as creative partners and helped with construction. Lovelis says she recognized in the Witch’s Cottage a similar outlook on life as hers. She recalled once years ago dating someone who had a skeptical and practical view of the world.
“And then there was me, being like, ‘That butterfly is a sign from my grandma,’” Lovelis says. The Witch’s Cottage, she says, is reflective of viewing the world through a magical lens. At a time of much stress for many, such a place may be needed. As Lovelis says, “What’s the harm?”
The Witch’s Cottage is a two-story space that serves as a cafe during the day and a restaurant at night. Dinner service begins at 5 p.m.
Surniak still has a day job, working as a stunt and intimacy coordinator on theatrical and Hollywood productions. Ozymandias, who previously worked in the local theater world, is focusing primarily on the Witch’s Cottage at the moment, helping to devise recipes and ensure the bakery can accommodate as many dietary restrictions as possible.
Beyond new menu items, there’s more in the works, including community events like sound baths, comedy nights and classes on composting, native plants and parenting. Or even some workshops that are more lighthearted, such as a hoped-for night on how to make a broom.
Hidden behind the upstairs bar is what’s called the Tempered Flask Tavern, and it’s an elaborate tabletop role-playing game room. Here, one will find a smoke-puffing dragon, but also digital windows that game masters can use to trigger various effects. A long table sits at its center, flanked by a knight, a digital fireplace and weaponry. Not open yet, the plan is for the room to be rented out by the hour.
The Tempered Flask Tavern is a hidden room dedicated to tabletop games inside the Witch’s Cottage. It will be available soon for guests to rent out.
Though Surniak and Ozymandias say they’ve been building vision boards for more than a decade of what the spot could look like, recent cultural shifts gave them the confidence that the timing was right. They point to “Stranger Things” and how it spawned a conversation around “Dungeons & Dragons,” or the success of Disney+ series “Agatha All Along.” More locally, they watched the rise of a game-focused bar such as the Roguelike Tavern, which is relocating to Studio City, as well as the news that experiential art firm Meow Wolf would be building an exposition in the city.
Taken as a whole, they felt bolstered that North Hollywood could support a heavily themed cafe, a home for those who have rolled a 20-sided die, once looked up the meaning of the Tower card or just enjoyed a viewing of “The Lord of the Rings.”
But one need not know the inner workings of RPGs, tarot or Middle-earth to feel at home in the Witch’s Cottage. This is a space, after all, for anyone who has ever been touched by a fairy tale, dreamed of the fantastical or wanted to believe in the power of wishing upon a star.
Views from inside North Hollywood’s the Witch’s Cottage.
So spend a little time in the Witch’s Cottage, and maybe you’ll start to imagine that cocktail is a potion, and those deviled eggs did in fact hatch from a dragon. Diners may debate between the “iron forged fondue melt” (a patty melt) or the “meze heartwich” (a white bean purée on sourdough), but childlike wonder is the specialty of the house.
“Everybody is somebody’s kid,” Ozymandias says. “And I just want a safe space for people’s kids. Even if you’re 50, or 80, you’re my kid. I want you to feel loved, and to have a cup of something warm or magical. I want you to know that whatever is outside those doors, when you’re in here, I got you.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 bagged game of the year at the 2024 BAFTA Game Awards, along with four other wins, cementing its status in the video games world. The video game has also been widely praised by players since it came out with the HBO series expected to grow its fanbase.
One fan gave a glowing review on Metacritic: “Absolutely beautiful game.”
They added in their critique: “I have around 200 hours now spent on this game and i’m still discovering more on my 3rd and 4th play throughs.”
While a second user posted an equally positive review: “The best new age RPG ever made. It perfectly encapsulates the scenery and feel of DND on the scale of a major video game release.
“The sheer amounts of decisions, both big and small, a player can make is both overwhelming and beautiful.”
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This delivers live and on-demand TV without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like The Last of Us and Squid Game.
A third declared: “Masterpiece, best CRPG in the history of gaming, even so as we didnt have a great CRPG since Dragon Age 2 o Mass Effect 2 [sic].”
Yet another wrote: “Despite the odd bugs and broken quests, an exceptional game. This player of video games for 5 decades waited so long for something so rich and realistic.”
The drama series will be spearheaded by The Last of Us’ co-creator and Chernobyl writer Craig Mazin, who is confirmed to be writing, showrunning and executive producing the TV iteration.
Mazin said in a statement, as per Deadline, “After putting nearly 1000 hours into the incredible world of Baldur’s Gate 3 , it is a dream come true to be able to continue the story that Larian and Wizards of The Coast created.
“I am a devoted fan of D&D and the brilliant way that Swen Vincke and his gifted team adapted it.”
“I can’t wait to help bring Baldur’s Gate and all of its incredible characters to life with as much respect and love as we can, and I’m deeply grateful to Gabe Marano and his team at Hasbro for entrusting me with this incredibly important property.”
The Baldur’s Gate TV show is slated to be a continuation of the games and will focus on the story after Baldur’s Gate 3, with existing and new characters reeling from the events of the latest game.
This means that the show won’t be tied to the video games and can take its own direction and tell a story in its own right.
This is a sharp contrast to The Last of Us, which directly adapted the video game’s storyline as well as building upon the existing world.
Indeed The Last of Us’ second season was met with a far more muted response to the universally lauded first outing led by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.
The Last of Us is going to be ending with its third and final season, with Mazin recently paid tribute to the late Catherine O’Hara, who played therapist Gail in the post-apocalyptic drama.
HBO previously confirmed in 2025 that showrunner Neil Druckmann would be stepping away from the drama to focus on his existing commitments to his video game company Naughty Dog.
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Very few, if any, of their attackers will get 270 minutes over the three games and those that own the injured Bukayo Saka should make the switch to 90-minute man Declan Rice without hesitation.
Triple Arsenal defence is also an option with Gabriel, Jurrien Timber and goalkeeper David Raya a high risk, high reward play.
Elsewhere, midfielder Enzo Fernandez has four goals, one assist in his past six league games and has become Chelsea‘s most reliable asset.
His busy schedule shouldn’t put you off buying him in a week when boss Liam Rosenior has praised his athleticism, leadership and recovery time. A visit to Wolves followed by home games against Leeds and Burnley puts Chelsea top of the fixture ticker over the next three.
