Anything with four legs would do well to steer clear of Bestia in downtown Los Angeles lest it ends up in chef Ori Menashe’s “aggressively maintained” charcuterie consisting of more than 60 cured meats. That’s an impressive amount of meat by anyone’s standards. Everyone else is perfectly safe though, as this is a friendly family-run restaurant – Ori’s wife Genevieve Gergis has the cuddlier job of pastry chef, and she was also involved in the design of Bestia (Italian for “beast”).
The former oil drum spouts which now function as floral light fittings are one of Genevieve’s contributions. Those copper tones gel nicely with the rust of the exterior – this building in the arts district revels in its industrial past, and other examples of this heritage are the vintage machinist stools lining the bar. On the food side of things, you can expect Neopolitan pizzas made with dough that has been leavened with Ori’s own yeast cultures, and a range of homemade pastas, not forgetting some scrummy desserts. Bestia won’t be winning any awards from the Vegan Society, but it’s got our vote.
Photography, Andrea Bricco
