The h.wood Group Traded Velvet Ropes for a Neighborhood Grill in the Palisades

The company behind Delilah and The Nice Guy built a place for Tuesday dinner with the kids.

Alphabet Bar and Grill opened on Saturday, August 15, the same day Palisades Village reopened after 19 months and roughly $100 million of post-fire remediation. It is the h.wood Group's first neighborhood-focused concept, which is a genuine departure for a company better known for velvet-rope rooms like Delilah, The Nice Guy and Bootsy Bellows.

Co-founders John Terzian and Brian Toll named it for the Alphabet Streets, the residential grid that is one of the Palisades' most recognizable enclaves. Their stated aim was a room where neighbors could gather again, built with Caruso rather than as a standalone destination.

The chef

Timothy Hollingsworth runs the kitchen, and his resume is the reason to pay attention. He earned the James Beard Rising Star Chef award while at Thomas Keller's The French Laundry, where he was chef de cuisine until 2012, and represented the United States at the Bocuse d'Or in 2009. He won Netflix's The Final Table in 2018 and has appeared on Beat Bobby Flay and Tournament of Champions.

In Los Angeles he ran Otium at The Broad and the arcade bar Free Play. He is also a co-founder of Chain, the gourmet fast-food project with B.J. Novak that is opening a six-month residency at Topanga Social on September 2. Outside California he opened the French-American brasserie Hundredfold with Patina Group in New York, and The Oak Room and Bernadette's in Washington with TenFive Hospitality in June. Alphabet is his first Los Angeles restaurant in this run.

The food

Hollingsworth has described the menu as an American neighborhood grill run through a California lens, built around rotisserie chicken, all-day classics, seasonal dishes and nostalgic desserts, with produce pulled from the Palisades Village farmers market that operates on the property each Wednesday. Craft cocktails and a curated wine list round it out.

He framed the intent plainly in the opening announcement, saying cooking has always been about how we take care of the people we love, and that he wanted dishes that become weekly staples rather than special-occasion plates.

The room

Alexa Nafisi-Movaghar of Adean Studios designed the interior around green marble countertops, gold brass accents, ambient lighting, linen-topped tables and textured seating. The space seats roughly 70 indoors with an adjoining patio, and the company hired about 20 local employees ahead of opening. There is no private dining room, which is deliberate. The concept is built around a single open dining room.

The address carries some history. The storefront previously housed Hank's, the upscale American restaurant Rick Caruso named for his father.

Visiting

Alphabet Bar and Grill is at Palisades Village in Pacific Palisades, in the former Hank's space. The Palisadian-Post lists the storefront as 1033 N. Swarthmore Avenue; the center's main address is 15225 Palisades Village Lane, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272, and the Caruso Concierge line is (310) 525-1380.

• Hours: open seven days a week from 11 a.m., serving lunch, dinner and drinks.

• Reservations: available on OpenTable.

• Parking: self-parking is complimentary for all guests through September 2026. Valet is accessible from Palisades Village Lane for a fee.

• Private dining: not offered.

The restaurant's listing on the Palisades Village dining directory carries current details, and the center has posted a video interview with Hollingsworth on its homepage covering his path from dishwasher to The French Laundry.

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.