Daniel Patterson first touched down in Los Angeles with Locol in 2016, a partnership with Roy Choi in Watts that started and stopped multiple times before finally reopening in 2024. Since then, Patterson partnered and then eventually parted ways with Keith Corbin at Alta Adams before launching a home-based pop-up called Jaca Social Club with his wife Sarah Lewitinn, who had been a multi-faceted DJ, producer, and more in the music industry. Lewitinn will roam the room, chatting up diners and offering tangential topics of conversation. Jacaranda, which occupies the short-lived Koast on Melrose’s “Michelin Alley” (with Osteria Mozza, Providence, Kali, and Meteora all within striking distance), is Patterson’s return to fine dining form after a dozen years establishing modern California institution Coi in San Francisco (which at one point held three Michelin stars).
Jacaranda’s $295 tasting menu and $145 wine pairing have not been added to Michelin’s California guide, though given Patterson’s pedigree, it’s only a matter of time. The menu consists of 12 total dishes, including two amuse-bouches, two desserts, and mignardises, which means there are seven composed plates that employ seasonal ingredients at their flavor peak. Together, the meal spans a swift two-and-a-half hours in a room adorned with Lewitinn’s uncles’ paintings and a foot-tapping soundtrack of early 2010s indie rock tracks.
Wine director Rick Arline, previously of West Hollywood natural wine bar Fellow Traveler, assembles a fully California pairing that features Caraccioli Cellars brut cuvee at the top of the meal and moves toward food-friendly whites like Ojai Vineyard Riesling and Phelan Farm Chardonnay. For the duck breast, a Cobb Pinot Noir from 2021 with dark fruit notes and whiffs of ocean air acts as the ideal sipper.
Jacaranda has a rare Sunday lunchtime service (for a fine dining restaurant) that allows those who prefer tasting menus to happen when the sun’s still up. A diffused light pours into the typically mellow dining room for something a bit more energetic. Another bonus: the lack of Sunday dinner allows staff to enjoy one of their weekend evenings off.
In the realm of Los Angeles’s tasting menus, Jacaranda displays a well-curated, technically sound array of modern California cooking, something Patterson helped innovate in the aughts. Whether it has staying power remains to be seen.