A team of New York Michelin-starred restaurant alums just opened an ambitious new tasting menu restaurant in La Jolla. Lucien is led by chef Elijah Arizmendi and his team, who have brought their breadth of experience from Per Se, Bernandin, L’abeille, and Sushi Ichimura to the coastal Southern California city. The $260 tasting menu features more than a dozen courses in the main dining area, while the bar offers a la carte dishes and welcomes walk-ins.
The dark open kitchen at Lucien. Lucien
The dining room is lined with cognac-colored leather booths. Lucien
Arizmendi has worked with Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, and Joël Robuchon in San Francisco, Las Vegas, and New York City. During his tenure as chef de cuisine at L’abeille in New York, the French Japanese restaurant earned its first Michelin star. Arizmendi is joined at Lucien by co-owner Brian Hung, whom he first met while they both worked at Per Se in 2001. The pastry team is led by Bella Alicea, who worked as pastry sous chef at Per Se, as well as the three-Michelin-starred restaurant Le Bernardin. Wine and beverage director James Meringer was previously head sommelier at Kuma Hospitality, which included L’abeille, L’abeille à Côté, and Sushi Ichimura.
Raised in Northern California and Washington, D.C., Arizmendi tells Eater he missed the seasonal produce available on the West Coast, which informs his ethos of cooking. “I met with fishermen and farmers from one-acre to 50-acre farms, from Chula Vista to Santa Monica, to understand the hyper-seasonal produce,“ Arizmendi says. At Lucien, produce is sourced from local producers including Chino Farms, JR Organics, Sagehill Ranch Gardens, Shane Seafood, Heritage Family Farms, Masami Ranch, and more.
Lucien’s menu encompasses more than a dozen courses, each plated on French porcelain or ceramic stoneware hand-thrown by Arizmendi’s mother. Dishes change with the season, but Arizmendi will keep a few staple plates, such as the egg custard with Chantilly topped with N25 Oscietra caviar scooped tableside. A $195 drink pairing includes Champagne, California whites, Japanese lager, and French Bordeaux.
Caviar. Kimberly Motos
Spiny lobster aquachile with uni and passionfruit. Kimberly Motos
A dish on one of the hand-thrown plates at Lucien. Kimberly Motos
The tasting menu begins under a calamansi tree in a bright outdoor courtyard, accompanied by a glass of calamansi juice and small courses, such as Charentais melon with green chartreuse and Iberico pork with honey crisp apple. When it’s time for the main courses, diners are escorted beyond a large bronze door from the outdoor light into a dark, moody dining area — a sharp contrast to the senses. “It’s a lot of juxtaposition in the cooking as well,” Arizmendi says.“I use very precise techniques, like induction on the customized Molteni stove from France. On the other side of the kitchen, I also employ primitive cooking techniques, such as an open-fire hearth. There are a lot of contrasts in what we do.”
Other dishes might include banana egg custard in an egg shell topped with N25 Oscietra caviar, California spiny lobster aquachile with uni and passionfruit, Iberico pork pâté en croûte accompanied by a dollop of mustard cream; mussels, clams, and abalone nestled in a seafood froth; and squab dressed in pine nuts and pine-smoked matsutake mushrooms. Dinner ends with three dessert courses that change as often as the menu. Currently, Arizmendi serves Japanese eggplant ice cream with brown cardamom topped with delicate foam, as well as a trio of truffles.
The bar at Lucien serves select dishes from the tasting menu, like Amber Eden ancient grain bread accompanied by aged cultured butter and Masami Ranch wagyu rib-eye, alongside wine and specialty bar cocktails, such as the Enzoni Bello, made with St. George Botanivore gin, bitter citrus, amber vermouth, and grapes.
An elongated oak bar atop a sculpted quartzite rock. Lucien
Located on the top floor of La Plaza La Jolla on Girard Avenue near Prospect Street in the former Sushi on the Rocks, Lucien’s 3,100-square-foot restaurant accommodates 30 guests in an intimate setting with views of the open kitchen from the dining room. Nooks cradle intimate tables with cognac-colored leather booths. The decor is inspired by La Jolla’s caves and sandy beaches; the walls are awash with the color of dark sea moss. A wide bronze door to the restaurant leads to a courtyard anchored by a calamansi tree. Across the outdoor space are floor-to-ceiling glass patio doors that enclose a contemporary bar. The focal point is an elongated oak bar top supported by sculpted quartzite rock.
The space underwent a massive transformation over two years, courtesy of the Tecture Design Group and Encinitas Design Group, which included relocating the kitchen to the opposite end of the restaurant. (“If I hadn’t worked for Thomas Keller, I wouldn’t have been able to design my own kitchen,” Arizmendi says.)
After years in New York, Arizmendi is wholly focused on representing California cooking and the state’s bounty of produce at Lucien. Back in the state where he grew up, he’s happy to use produce picked from the fields that day and incorporate the ingredients into his dishes. “I want to do California cuisine, using French and Japanese techniques, executed at a high level,” he says. “We want to get the best ingredients, highlight the farmers and fishermen, and tell the story of time and place with the local hyper-seasonal bounty.”
A delicate dessert course topped with flowers. Kimberly Motos