Here’s one we didn’t see coming. Just three days after opening The Hart & Hunter at PaliHotel, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing is back on Abbot-Kinney, the same street where Kris Tominaga and Brian Dunsmoor held the restaurant in pop-up form last spring. Yo! Venice! pounces on the news, reporting that the restaurant is taking over the recently shuttered Lilly’s space, and though we’re yet to receive confirmation back from the chefs’ camp, stenciled initials indicate the rumors bubbling up on the street in the last month are indeed true. Even stranger, this one has two completely different chefs in the kitchen.
The word is, Brad Johnson of Post & Beam is one of the operators, along with original WISC owner John Mascarenhas, who are placing Kevin Kathman and Dustin Taylor of Capri’s late Abbot Kinney Supper Club pop-up in the kitchen. “Dapper” Daniel Nelson, of Writers Room fame, is behind the restaurant’s bar program.
The Hart & Hunter came to life in West Hollywood on Monday, serving many of Wolf’s same Southern-inspired market dishes. Kind of crazy how quickly this came to be, no? But as there are technically two chefs behind the concept, we suppose these guys won’t be stretched too thin running two branches of a similar restaurant. That is, assuming Tominaga and Dunsmoor have given this new face to their name a blessing (we’re looking into it).
Either way, Venetians are overjoyed just to see Wolf stay grounded on their well-trodden boulevard. The restaurant is reportedly opening tonight for dinner.
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing Settles Down [Yo! Venice!]
