British Bistro Wilde’s Brings Bangers and Mash and Natural Wine to Los Feliz

A new British-tinged neighborhood bistro just landed on a busy stretch of Hillhurst in Los Feliz. Lifelong friends Natasha Price and Tatiana Ettensberger opened Wilde’s on October 30 in the former Thai on Hillhurst with a menu of natural wines, Welsh rarebit, and meat pie in the evening, and will soon serve sausage rolls and pastries during the day.

Price and Ettensberger barely remember a life without each other in it — the pair met when they were two years old, and, through the years, their families stayed close. Price began cooking professionally at 18, while Ettensberger found her way to wine after college while working a marketing job. “In very Tatiana fashion, just within a few months, she was extremely knowledgeable, constantly learning, and just made a huge career shift,” Price says. Eventually, Price landed at the now-closed Mina’s in New York City as the chef de cuisine, while Ettensberger was the general manager and wine buyer at Chinatown’s Cafe Triste. Still, the duo had dreams of opening something together.

Natasha Price and Tatiana Ettensberger at Wilde’s. Kort Havens

Initially, Price and Ettensberger discussed opening two concepts: Wilde’s would be a daytime cafe operated by Price, while a separate natural wine bar, Pigs, would be a collaboration between the two of them. “Wilde’s really feels like the marriage of those versions and us both pushing each other to make something different and better,” Price says. “I think when I started, I wanted something daytime and cafe, which, ultimately, when I dug deep, I think was a fear of not being able to succeed in a dinner space.”

Price’s roots in England inform the menu at Wilde’s, interpreted through the lens of California cooking and ingredients. While her family moved away from the U.K. when she was very young, the traditions of the cuisine have remained alive through the years at their holiday dinners. Although the stateside impression of British cuisine is often limited to a handful of dishes like shepherd’s pie and bangers and mash, Price approaches it more expansively. “I think British food in England right now, and not just in London, what they’re doing is just seasonal, farm-to-table cooking,” Price says. She designed the restaurant’s slim menu around a handful of “anchors” rooted in both British and Californian cooking. “We’ve been dreaming of this, and you want to have some room to play and experiment, too,” Price says. “ I think LA is really good at allowing restaurants to do that.”

Welsh rarebit opens the menu — a thick slice of bread blanketed in melted cheese sauce — followed by locally sourced persimmons paired with Stilton cheese. “I wanted to kind of think about these moments throughout the menu that, like, really brought you to England,” Price says. Fish and chips make their appearance in the form of battered sea bass and mint, as well as bangers and mash, made with a mustard seed-dotted whole bratwurst. Pork cracklings nestle alongside kohlrabi, while the flaky-crusted meat pie comes large enough to share.

“British farm-to-table cooking is very produce-forward, seasonal, and also grounded with a bit more rusticity and meat,” Price says. “I think farm-to-table in LA can be really light, and there are definitely light moments on our menu, but we also just want people to feel nourished and full.” Wilde’s is working toward a whole hog program led by chef de cuisine Sarah Durning, a former butcher at Gwen and pastry chef at Dunsmoor. Currently, the menu utilizes half of the hog in dishes such as pork cracklings, coppa di testa, sausages, and in specials like pork chops. For dessert, find Eton mess with crushed meringue, sticky toffee pudding, and a jam-filled Bakewell tart.

Ettensberger draws on her background at Cafe Triste to center the wine menu on unexpected natural bottles. “[Cafe Triste] has an ethos and sort of belief systems surrounding natural wine that I fully became indoctrinated in and still very much am,” she says. The bottle list at opening focuses on smaller winemakers from France, Italy, Spain, and California.

With such a tight space, Ettensberger balances more conventional, approachable picks with “rock and roll” bottles, aiming to have something for everyone, even if it’s their first time trying natural wine. At the end of the night, Prices says when she wants to try a glass of something, she goes to Ettensberger for a recommendation and gets rewarded with a detailed story on the winemaker. “I’ve worked in restaurants and I’ve never experienced that level of thought and personal connection,” Price says of Ettensberger. “She takes that extra step to know those details, and it just makes for such a more beautiful drinking experience.”

Pastries and sausage rolls at the daytime bakery and cafe. Emily Ferretti

Starting Friday, November 14, Wilde’s will open during the daytime as a bakery and cafe with pastries from Durning. Open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., or until sold out, the restaurant will serve a lineup of sweet pastries alongside sausage rolls and coffee. “I think the dream of the cafe was a place where you could come get a coffee, read a newspaper, and have a delicious pastry that is made here, and then kind of go on your merry way,” Price says. Eventually, Price and Ettensberger hope to expand the daytime menu to include more sit-down lunch dishes like egg and soldiers.

The interior of Wilde’s, with warm wood-clad walls and an eclectic assortment of art on the walls, is fashioned to resemble a British countryside pub transported to Los Feliz. In the afternoon, the dining room glows as sunlight pours into a window that looks onto the sidewalk; after it gets dark, candles flicker at each white tablecloth-topped table.

The first week open has been line-out-the-door busy, but Price and Ettensberger remain focused on making Wilde’s feel like a neighborhood spot and continuing to evolve the menu as they settle in. “As a chef, I have some dumb ego about myself or whatever, but I think what’s most important is I just want people to walk in and eat the food and be genuinely happy,” Price says. Ettensberger jokes that she’s looking forward to making new friends in the neighborhood. “There are people in my life that I have met and become friends with just because they were a regular at Triste, and I think those connections are so special in restaurants, and I just can’t wait,” she says.

Wilde’s is located at 1850 Hillhurst Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027. The restaurant is open for dinner Wednesday to Saturday from 5:30 to 10 p.m., and will start daytime hours at 8 a.m. on November 14. Reservations are available through Resy, but walk-ins are also welcome.