{"id":142025,"date":"2026-01-20T20:29:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T20:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/142025\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T20:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T20:29:15","slug":"inside-last-word-hospitalitys-new-american-chophouse-hermons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/142025\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Last Word Hospitality’s New American Chophouse Hermon’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Last Word Hospitality venture debuted in December<\/p>\n

Chef David \u201cDK\u201d\u00a0Kolender\u00a0often begins creating a dish by envisioning how it will look.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI see everything in my head all the time,\u201d he says. \u201cI see the colors and then I want to fill in those gaps.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kolender\u00a0uses his visual approach as chef-partner at\u00a0Hermon\u2019s<\/a>, Last Word Hospitality\u2019s new American chophouse in Northeast Los Angeles\u2019 Hermon neighborhood. The restaurant opened in early December and expanded the L.A.-based restaurant group\u2019s portfolio, which also includes\u00a0Rasarumah, Queen\u2019s Raw Bar & Grill and Found Oyster, the latter two of which are helmed by\u00a0Kolender\u2019s\u00a0brother, chef Ari\u00a0Kolender.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Raised in Charleston, S.C.,\u00a0Kolender\u00a0spent about a decade in New York City as a menswear designer, working with the likes of Rag & Bone and Kenneth Cole. A college dinner party tradition grew into catering fashion events, making it easy to make the leap to Los Angeles after his brother called asking him to help open Culver City\u2019s now-closed Hayden in 2017.\u00a0Kolender\u00a0felt like\u00a0he\u2019d\u00a0run his course in fashion; it was time to step into a craft with endless possibilities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hermon's\"Hermon'sCitrus panzanellaCredit: Jim Sullivan<\/p>\n

\"Hermon's\"Hermon'sOde to Chez BurgerCredit: Jim Sullivan<\/p>\n

\u201cThat process of creating, for me, is where I get the most fulfillment, and with food, you\u2019re creating every day,\u201d explains\u00a0Kolender, who also cut his teeth in the kitchens at Venice\u2019s Dudley Market and Santa Monica\u2019s Tartine. \u201cI also fell in love with being able to make something and give it to someone, and you get to see them enjoy it immediately.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Set inside a former church banquet hall, Hermon\u2019s has 89 seats across its all-booth dining room and U-shaped bar.\u00a0Decidedly homey with art deco bones, the David Wick-designed space balances warmth and style through hickory floors, antique lights, handmade California tilework and contemporary and vintage artwork that dates back to the early 19th century.\u00a0Hermon\u2019s marks\u00a0Wick\u2019s\u00a0third restaurant for\u00a0Last\u00a0Word Hospitality.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a labor of love,\u201d Wick shares. \u201cThis may seem simple, but I love the\u00a0tile\u00a0in the kitchen. Its pattern is meant to evoke\u00a0craftsmen\u00a0siding. I love\u00a0the space\u00a0planning\u00a0and how\u00a0the bar divides the restaurant into three different areas with a variety of table sizes.\u00a0And the overhead lights. They dim to 800K or sunset color, so the space is super warm.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n

\"Hermon's\"\"Hermon's\"Credit: Jim Sullivan<\/p>\n

As for\u00a0building the menu,\u00a0Kolender\u00a0developed a lineup that offered \u201cenough variety and options that you could eat here every day.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

He points out must-trys\u00a0such as the two-sheet lasagna vongole, lemon baked Alaska and tuna carpaccio with king trumpet duxelles, dates, black\u00a0vinegar\u00a0and Korean chili oil. There is also the Ode\u00a0to Chez\u00a0Cheeseburger, a nod to Last Word Hospitality\u2019s planned Malibu restaurant Chez Ren\u00e9e, which\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0survive the Palisades fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hermon's\"Hermon'sThe lasagna and bologneseCredit: Jim Sullivan<\/p>\n

The crowd-pleasing array of beverages includes familiar and intriguing wines, classic cocktails with a twist like the yuzu margarita and nonalcoholic creations including the refreshing celery and fennel juice\u00a0soda. \u201cI\u00a0definitely hope we\u2019re\u00a0a pillar\u00a0in this community,\u201d\u00a0Kolender\u00a0says.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Last Word Hospitality venture debuted in December Chef David \u201cDK\u201d\u00a0Kolender\u00a0often begins creating a dish by envisioning how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[578,61656,48,52,51,47,50,49,51110],"class_list":{"0":"post-142025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-dining","9":"tag-january-2026","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-headlines","12":"tag-la-news","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","15":"tag-los-angeles-news","16":"tag-new-restaurants"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}