ANOTHER UPDATE: PLATFORM Bringing Lots Of Good Food to Culver City Very Soon.

(photo via PlatformLA.com)

UPDATE (1/20/16): After all the hullabaloo, Craftsman & Wolves reached out to the blog to share their side of the story. The good news: they still have the lease at PLATFORM. The bad news: as is wont to happen with LA construction, the complex's lengthy, extended build out led them to refocus their financing efforts on two new San Francisco locations. Thus, they now seek investors to help C&W LA come to fruition by year's end. 

Are you such a person? Email their President, Lawrence! He'd love to chit-chat with you! I'll be honest, if I had a few spare coins, I'd definitely toss 'em in C&W's direction. I mean, have you seen their stuff? And check out that menu. Definitely the high-end patisserie/bakery this neck of the woods sorely seeks.

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Since I live a mere two blocks away, to say I have anxiously been awaiting the arrival of the Hayden Tract's PLATFORM is an understatement of epic proportions. Like a virgin on Prom Night, I just need it to happen already. Especially since the restaurant announcements started rolling out eighteen months back. With Soul Cycle officially opening its doors and christening the spot, we are now within a couple months of Culver City's newest dining destinations following suit.

Unfortunately, it appears, as often happens, in the extended and arduously long build-out, there have been some causalities. Even worse: they're the two of the more exciting potential additions. Both Chef Evan Funke's proposed fancy late night diner, Thoroughbred, and the first LA location of San Francisco's beloved bakery, Craftsman & Wolves, are no longer part of PLATFORM.

Why exactly? I do not know. In an earlier version of this post I hypothesized a few possibilities, but that wasn't exactly fair. So I have set it upon myself to reach out to both restaurants to gather their side of the story. Stay tuned for that.

However, in the mean time, the absence of these two does not mean there aren't some really exciting food concepts coming to the new, mixed-used, anti-The Grove, including: the aforementioned Blue Bottle, as well as the massive The Cannibal (a popular NYC meat-centric spot), Loqui (San Francisco-based elevated Baja street food) and ice creamery Van Leeuwen. Of course, since this is a gentrifying neighborhood, there's also a juicery (Juice Served Here) and acai bowlery (Sao Acai). Furthermore, Sweetgreen, a greens-heavy fast casual restaurant that doesn't make you want to stab yourself, will be opening their west coast hqs there (at this time they have no plans for a restaurant though).

Although some of the retail may join Soul Cycle soon, the best guess for the restaurant openings is to coincide with PLATFORM's mid-March grand commencement.