Sous Sous Put a Restaurant in a 1931 Silver Lake Church, and the Rooftop Has a Catch
Six years of renovation, a 1931 sanctuary, and one rule that decides whether you see the roof.
Sous Sous opened on Monday, September 14, in the former sanctuary of Bethany Presbyterian Church at the corner of Lucile Avenue and Griffith Park Boulevard. The 1931 Romanesque building is now Hotel Lucile, a 25-room property from Casetta Hotels, and the restaurant sits under the original soaring ceilings in the nave.
Casetta spent six years on the renovation. That is a long time to hold a building in Silver Lake, and the result is a dining room most restaurants could not build from scratch at any price.
Who is cooking
The restaurant is run by the team behind De La Nonna, with chef Patrick Costa in the kitchen and Lee Zaremba as operations and beverage director. It is their second project with Casetta, following the De La Nonna location inside the refurbished Hotel Marina Riviera in Big Bear in 2025.
They also recently closed Let's Go Disco, the bar adjacent to De La Nonna, to concentrate on projects like this one rather than nightlife. Zaremba framed Sous Sous as a chance to "expand people's expectations of us," which is a fair read: De La Nonna is known for a pizza patio, and this is the fine dining side of the same team.
The menu
The framing is Southern France run through the American South, built on California produce with a heavy lean toward seafood and a raw bar. From the opening menu:
Oysters finished with an Espelette pepper rim on the shell and a seasonal mignonette.
Hamachi crudo with Virginia peanuts and chile.
Bouillabaisse for two, built on clams, mussels, shrimp and a saffron broth.
Brick chicken using Mary's Organic chicken with frisee, and a roasted chicken with lemon jus.
Hush puppies with honey butter, and a zucchini carpaccio.
The rooftop rule
This is the thing worth knowing before you book. The Hotel Lucile rooftop is otherwise reserved for hotel guests, but it opens to anyone holding a Sous Sous reservation. The team has said it hopes to program it with small DJ sets, wine tastings and events with local partners.
A dinner booking is therefore the only public route onto that roof, which makes the reservation worth more than the meal alone. The periphery of the restaurant space and the curtained front section remain guest-only during the day, serving espresso and grab-and-go.
One more timing note. Sous Sous currently serves dinner only. Time Out made the point that the room is worth seeing with daylight still coming through the windows, so an early reservation buys you something a late one does not.
The building, and the neighborhood
Casetta's president Jennifer Armbruster has said that second and third generation Silver Lake residents came through during the opening specifically to thank the team for keeping the essence of the building. That instinct runs through the company's portfolio, which includes Hotel Marina Riviera in Big Bear, Hotel Willa in Taos, The Pearl in San Diego, Casa Cody in Palm Springs and The Surfrider in Malibu.
The property also runs a living art program built with Rhett Baruch Gallery and Uprise Art, plus Sunday brunches, artist residencies and community programming, per Markets of Tomorrow. A church that served as a neighborhood gathering place for ninety years is being asked to do the same job in a different register.
Visiting
Sous Sous is at 1629 Griffith Park Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90026, inside Hotel Lucile at the corner of Lucile Avenue, a short walk from Sunset Junction.
Hours: Sunday through Thursday 5 to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 10 p.m. Dinner only for now.
Reservations: bookable through Resy, and effectively required if you want roof access.
Rooftop: hotel guests, plus anyone with a Sous Sous reservation.
Parking: street parking around Sunset Junction, which is tight on weekend evenings. Budget the walk.
Updates: posted on the Hotel Lucile page.
What we have our eye on: the bouillabaisse for two, and whether the room delivers on a Tuesday the way it does on a Saturday. A dining room this dramatic is easy to love once. FJM will report back after a visit.
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.
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