Openings

Industriel Opens in Downtown, Turning Back-Breaking Farmwork Trendy

“Can you spare a doggy bag?” Photo: Brigham Yen via Flo Design/Facebook

L.A. Downtown News paved the way this week for the opening of Industriel (tag-line: “Urban Farm Cuisine”), soft-open yesterday afternoon on the first two floors of the Milano Lofts on Grand Avenue. The 95-seat restaurant comes from Green Street Tavern owners Armen Hakobyan and Joseph Antonishek, with plans to serve French-leaning locavore cuisine for lunch and dinner seven days a week. Brigham Yen offers photos that look consistent with the spot’s bucolic opportunism, showing a space that looks a little like the love-child of Artisan House and Cleo, full of both rustic and chic touches blended together.

To start, there are two giant black-and-white portraits of poor-looking, struggling farmhands shaming you inside the entrance (how very L.A. Story!), mobiles made from honey bear bottles, pickle jars, mismatched furniture and wooden crates, and a sepia-toned portrait of a naked lady, all assembled under the watch of Flo Design.

While the establishment is soft-open for previews again tonight, an official public grand-opening is scheduled for tomorrow evening, giving Downtowners and their amis the chance to dig into house-baked breads, a dish called “Skull and Bones” with marrow, tongue, and cheek, sardines, pork sandwiches, organic proteins (including goat gnocchi and rabbit pelmeni), escargot, oysters with cucumber-watermelon-radish mignonette, and small veggie plates of farro, kale, and quinoa. There’s even foie gras and showing what our sad future may hold come July, “faux” gras with a rib-eye and Kennebec poutine.

Industriel, 609 S. Grand Ave. Downtown. 213-488-8020.

Industriel Opens in Downtown, Turning Back-Breaking Farmwork Trendy