Somerville, a restaurant in View Park-Windsor Hills, is a notable addition to South Central LA’s dining scene.
The restaurant’s design is not an accident. Issa Rae, the founder, built it with GVO Hospitality partners Ajay Relan and Yonnie Hagos. They talk about the restaurant as an investment in South Central’s history, rather than a celebrity side project. The restaurant’s dimly lit room, with its deep and plush dining booths, is built for long conversations.
A stage sits front and center, and the person playing that night is doing it in full view.
The name Somerville nods to South Los Angeles’s Hotel Somerville, one of the only hotels that welcomed Black travelers during the era of segregation.
The original hotel was built by Dr. John Somerville, the first African American to graduate from the University of Southern California. The hotel stood as one of the few places in Los Angeles where Black travelers could book a room without question.
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Naming a restaurant after it is a direct line drawn between what Somerville was to Black Angelenos then and what this space is reclaiming now. This connection is significant.
The kitchen describes its cooking as progressive American with a Southern sensibility. The dishes are familiar, cooked with care, and never read as a gimmick.
The Parker House rolls and fried chicken and caviar sliders are notable starters, with the rolls being soft and the sliders balancing salt and brine well. They are a great way to begin the meal.
The braised short ribs and Scottish salmon are worth building the meal around. The short ribs fall apart at the first cut, and the salmon is cooked with precision.
The collard green lasagna is a dish to have an opinion about, layering a Southern staple into an Italian form. It is a unique offering.
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Cocktails close the night out with familiar structures, reworked with care.
Somerville is one piece of something larger Rae and her partners are building around it. The restaurant is proof that South Central doesn’t need outside investment to tell its own story well.
It needs the people who already know it to be handed the room and the resources to do it right.
Somerville is worth a reservation.
With its rich history, progressive American cuisine, and carefully crafted cocktails, it’s a must-visit destination in South Central LA. Go for the short ribs, and stay for what the room has to say about who gets to shape a city’s narrative.