Tar & Roses, one of Santa Monica\u2019s favorite neighborhood restaurants with a menu centered around a wood-burning oven, will close this month after nearly 15 years.<\/p>\n
At the first solo venture of chef Andrew Kirschner, a Santa Monica native and alum of Joe\u2019s in Venice, Table 8 in West Hollywood and Wilshire in Santa Monica, walls are accented with brick, and nearly all of the plates make a pass through a large wood-burning oven. Some of the restaurant\u2019s most popular dishes include oxtail dumplings and seasonal variations of fried cauliflower, the latter of which prompted The Times\u2019 late restaurant critic Jonathan Gold to ponder how the vegetable could possibly be \u201cmore delicious than prime steak.\u201d <\/p>\n
The closure was announced on the restaurant\u2019s Instagram account on Friday. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to put into words what these past 15 years have meant to us,\u201d the post reads. \u201cWe are incredibly proud of what we created, but even more grateful for all of the people who became part of our story along the way.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tar & Roses debuted in 2012, two years after the opening of Santa Monica Place amid other major investments in downtown Santa Monica. Except for a six-month closure in 2016 due to an oven fire, the restaurant was a consistent presence for approachable fine-dining. Kirschner even opened a sister restaurant, Santa Monica Yacht Club, in 2015, though it shuttered only two years after its inception.<\/p>\n
The steady buzz around Tar & Roses halted for COVID-19, when it, along with thousands of L.A. restaurants, were rocked by pandemic restrictions. With Tar & Roses\u2019 proximity to the Santa Monica Mountains, Kirschner said the Palisades fires also led to a sustained drop in restaurant traffic. Since then, he\u2019s seen a slow but consistent decline in business alongside rising rent, labor and insurance costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a myriad of things,\u201d Kirschner told The Times in a phone interview. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of factors that have unfortunately plagued downtown Santa Monica in a terrible way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The restaurant has also been impacted by ongoing crime. Kirschner said that his staff has been overwhelmed with homeless individuals causing property damage and harassing customers. There have also been several cases of people defecating near the doorway or on the outdoor patio, necessitating power washing and city support. Just two weeks ago, Tar & Roses\u2019 windows were smashed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no final incident,\u201d Kirschner said. \u201cIt\u2019s been something that\u2019s been on my mind for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once a thriving economic hub, Santa Monica has struggled more than neighboring Beverly Hills, Culver City and West Hollywood in recovering from pandemic-induced challenges, according to a new Rand Corp. study. The city\u2019s once-popular shopping centers have been plagued with closures, sparking concern about public safety and homelessness.<\/p>\n
Local restaurants have also suffered, including the closure of Socalo, a standby for modern Mexican cuisine from Border Grill chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, on Valentine\u2019s Day. The Victorian, a popular nightlife spot for more than 20 years, announced last week that it will close permanently after this month\u2019s Halloween bash. <\/p>\n
\u201cSanta Monica was once considered one of the greatest beach cities in the world. Now, tourists aren\u2019t coming, there\u2019s no foot traffic on the streets, half of the stores are closed,\u201d Kirschner said of his hometown. \u201cIt\u2019s death by a thousand cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tar & Roses will continue serving its fall menu, with highlights such as balsamic-glazed ribs and wood-roasted baby carrots with chermoula cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche. Oct. 24 is the last day of dine-in service.<\/p>\n
Kirschner is unsure of what his next venture will be. \u201cI\u2019m just ready to do something different in a new area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tar & Roses, one of Santa Monica\u2019s favorite neighborhood restaurants with a menu centered around a wood-burning oven, will close this month after nearly 15 years. At the first solo venture of chef Andrew Kirschner, a Santa Monica native and alum of Joe\u2019s in Venice, Table 8 in West Hollywood and Wilshire in Santa Monica,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[31442,9129,2147,31440,31441,73,9743,7,8,31439,3005,31438,13922,4466,1556,5480,839],"class_list":["post-39719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-restaurants","tag-city-support","tag-closure","tag-day","tag-kirschner","tag-oven","tag-people","tag-public-safety","tag-restaurant","tag-restaurants","tag-roses-restaurant","tag-santa-monica","tag-tar","tag-times","tag-way","tag-week","tag-west-hollywood","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117437092570077400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}