The Eat Sheet: Wolfgang Puck Dishes on His New Restaurant at the Hotel Bel-Air (Q&A)

Hollywood’s favorite chef, Wolfgang Puck, has been handed the food-and-beverage keys to one of its most storied luxury lodgings: The grand Hotel Bel-Air, which just reopened following an extensive two-year renovation and facelift by the Dorchester Collection, the same company that runs The Beverly Hills Hotel.

The top toque’s signature restaurant, Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air, is an indoor-outdoor redoubt off the lobby doling out entrees like braised Wagyu cheeks with smoked onion marmalade and apple horseradish. The space bears rotating artwork from blue-chip L.A. gallery Ace (acrylic pieces by Gary Lang are currently on view) and a clean-lined but not stark modernized decor by A-list New York designer David Rockwell.

The Hollywood Reporter talks to Puck about the Hotel Bel-Air’s new menu, fresh look—and why, even with 20 fine-dining restaurants currently in his business basket, he’s still not yet sated.

The Hollywood Reporter: You’ve already got Cut at the Beverly Wilshire and WP24 at the Ritz-Carlton downtown. What’s your plan for the Hotel Bel-Air?

Wolfgang Puck: Well, it’s an iconic property — not only in Southern California but in the world; everybody knows about it — so the food is going to really have to fit into the location: Spanish and Italian influences, typical California fresh-from-the-farm and from the market to the table.

THR: Peter Guber famously ordered room service at his adjacent home for decades. Will you continue the tradition?

Puck: Yeah, for sure! I will run up myself so I can get some exercise.

THR: Some longtime Hotel Bel-Air regulars have voiced concern that the redo may have gone a bit too modern.

Puck: You know, people come in — from Larry King to some other neighbors — and they love the bar and think the outside [foliage] just has to grow in a little bit more. It really feels comfortable. People always resists change; I love change. I think it was time to modernize it. A club can get too old, from the Friars Club to Chasen’s — you know, they had clubbiness but no customers [toward the end].

THR: What’s your next big focus?

Puck: We are going to redo Spago. The sixteenth of January we are going to be 30 years old. Can you believe that? We’ve survived longer than a lot of restaurants.

THR: Waldo Fernandez, who designed Soho House’s West Hollywood outpost, is said to have gotten the gig.

Puck: He did a great job with Trumps [in 1980 on Melrose]. It was the first really chic restaurant, all very modern-looking. I fell in love with it. I’m happy to be working with him.

THR: You seem to constantly be in forward motion, expanding your empire. Why not just take it easy after all of these years?

Puck: I just talked to my sister and she said, “Why don’t you retire already?” So I told her, “For me, the biggest excitement — next to sex — is probably opening restaurants.”

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