Melrose Hill’s Incoming Dining Star Serves an Ambitious Seafood Tasting Menu

Passage 109 began as a Mondays-only pop-up throughout the pandemic at Baik’s parents’ Koreatown restaurant. Baik helped years in New york city City in lauded great dining institutions like Eleven Madison Park and Cook’s Table at Brooklyn Fare and apprenticed under Nozomu Abe of Sushi Noz prior to returning to Los Angeles to assist at Kobawoo. Baik moved the pop-up to Chinatown in January 2023, where he operated a few days a week with minimal staff and spending plan to draw in prospective financiers and develop a complying with.

Passage 109, the modern seafood great dining restaurant by cook Brian Baik, is opening up in Melrose Hillside in 2025. After driving via Melrose Hillside for years with his moms and dads, that possess Kobawoo restaurant in nearby Koreatown, Baik has actually secured a previous furniture retail room for Corridor 109.

Matthew Kang
is the Lead Editor of Eater LA. He has covered eating, dining establishments, food culture, and night life in Los Angeles since 2008. He’s the host of K-Town, a YouTube collection covering Oriental food in America, and has actually been included in Netflix’s Road Food show.

Passage 109, the modern seafood great eating restaurant by chef Brian Baik, is opening up in Melrose Hill in 2025. After driving through Melrose Hill for years with his parents, who have Kobawoo dining establishment in close-by Koreatown, Baik has actually protected a former furniture retail area for Passage 109. For the irreversible Melrose Hillside location, Baik will certainly serve a tasting food selection at an eight- to 10-seat counter toward the back of the space and run a mixed drink and wine bar with a limited food menu called Bar 109 towards the front. The sampling counter will certainly mirror the food served at Hallway 109, yet with an open cooking area and restaurant interaction that Baik hasn’t been able to provide so much.

Baik is reluctant to label his food preparation, though in the past he’s served meals like Hokkaido iwashi milk bread toast, scorched bonito with pesto spaghetti, and Dungeness crab consomme. The cook is pursuing a particular “purity of ingredient” influenced by restaurants where he has actually functioned and his experiences maturing in Los Angeles’s Koreatown. “I have a particular goal which is to source the best products, use the very best techniques, and for the food to be on the stand, and to be able to supply an unique experience for our visitors,” he states.

For the long-term Melrose Hillside place, Baik will certainly offer a tasting menu at a 8- to 10-seat counter toward the back of the space and operate an alcoholic drink and wine bar with a minimal food menu called Bar 109 toward the front. “I felt it would certainly be very important, specifically where I’m opening up, to have a component that serves the neighborhood and neighborhood, to be an area where individuals that live nearby can socialize, come in for drinks or attacks to meet with buddies,” he claimed. Bar 109 will be open from the early night till twelve o’clock at night six days a week.

Corridor 109 will open by the initial quarter of 2025 at the edge of Melrose and Western Avenues near the David Zwirner and Morán Morán art galleries. Appointments at the Chinatown location will be recurring, with tickets launched on Tock.

The sampling counter will certainly mirror the food served at Passage 109, yet with an open cooking area and diner interaction that Baik hasn’t been able to provide up until now. Angelenos will see parallels to likewise ambitious dining establishments like the now-closed Dialogue in Santa Monica from cook Dave Beran, Le Comptoir in Koreatown, and the soon-to-open Somni in West Hollywood. “The food preparation will certainly be in front of visitors yet us cooks are suggested to discolor right into the background,” claims Baik.