Alta Adams Reopened With a New Menu and Keith Corbin as Sole Owner

Same corner of West Adams, same chef, a different restaurant than the one that closed.

Alta Adams reopened in June after a months-long closure, and the ownership has changed. Keith Corbin, who opened the West Adams restaurant in 2018 with chef Daniel Patterson, is now sole owner. He shut the room at the start of the year to refresh the interiors and rebuild the menu.

Corbin's story is tied to this neighborhood and to Watts, where he grew up. He and Patterson met during the opening of the original LocoL in Watts and worked together for four years there and across Alta Group restaurants in the Bay Area before Corbin returned to Los Angeles. The original Alta Adams built its reputation on California soul food, drawing the line between traditional West African cooking and California produce. It earned the restaurant a place in the Michelin Guide and made Corbin a two-time James Beard Award nominee.

The new menu

The reopening reads less as a reset than a widening. Familiar comfort remains, but the range has grown: hamachi crudo, suya-spiced bone marrow, black-eyed pea salad, confit duck leg with black garlic mole, grilled chicken tagine, West African osso buco, binchotan-grilled yellowtail collar and fire-roasted cabbage. Longtime signatures like black-eyed pea fritters, candied yams with spiced pecans and braised oxtails still anchor the room.

The through-line is that the cooking now reflects where Corbin is rather than where diners expect him to stay, which is a meaningful thing for a restaurant so closely identified with one chef and one neighborhood.

Visiting

Alta Adams is at 5359 W. Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90016, in historic West Adams. Reach the restaurant at (323) 571-4999.

• Dinner: Tuesday through Sunday, 5:30 to 10:30 p.m.

• Brunch: Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

• Adams Wine Shop: Tuesday through Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., next door.

• Parking: street parking along West Adams Boulevard and the residential side streets.

Hours shift as the restaurant gets busier, so the Alta Adams site is the place to confirm before you go.

Follow along with more LA restaurant news, see what else has opened in our guide to new restaurants in Los Angeles, or browse our picks for the best food in Los Angeles.