{"id":194769,"date":"2026-02-26T13:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T13:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/194769\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T13:12:14","slug":"the-witchs-cottage-is-a-new-fantasy-cafe-in-north-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/194769\/","title":{"rendered":"The Witch’s Cottage is a new fantasy cafe in North Hollywood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hear the name the Witch\u2019s Cottage and you might conjure a mystical vision. And inside the new North Hollywood space, here there be witches, yes. But that\u2019s just the start of it. <\/p>\n

In one area of the two-story cafe, restaurant and bar, constellations beckon. A guide to crystals calls forth in another. An azure booth is flanked by an abstracted mermaid sculpture, and elsewhere howling wolves are engraved into the bar tops. <\/p>\n

\"Celina <\/p>\n

Witch\u2019s Cottage co-founder Celina Lee Surniak, left, with investor\/partner Ana Lovelis and co-founder Danielle Ozymandias. The three envisioned a welcoming space that views the world through a magical lens. <\/p>\n

Hidden wonders are everywhere. Circle the cottage\u2019s hand-constructed tree trunks, and maybe, if you\u2019re lucky, you\u2019ll spy a tiny door hiding a little witch. Sit at one of the tables, and don\u2019t be surprised to hear the sounds of birds chirping from the man-made trees. Branches spring forth from paintings and every nook is a nod to something born of a fable. <\/p>\n

A decade-long vision of the founders, the Witch\u2019s Cottage<\/a> has transformed the old Federal Bar into a colorful, whimsical fairy-tale-like forest of a gathering spot. A place where one can come for the fantasy, and stay for the chicken etouffee and the Hex Breaker, a tiki-style, rum-heavy drink for grown-up sorcerers. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted this to feel lived in,\u201d says Danielle Ozymandias, who dreamed up the space with business partner Celina Lee Surniak, a fellow creative who like Ozymandias very much identifies as a witch. \u201cI wanted this to be a visual feast because I think maximalism is just so interesting. That may be the ADHD talking, but I knew I wanted a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The dining room of the Witch\u2019s Cottage aims for a fantasy forest-inspired look. <\/p>\n

\"LOS \"LOS <\/p>\n

While they certainly designed the Witch\u2019s Cottage to be family-friendly, Surniak and Ozymandias say part of their creative intent was to bring joy to adults. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody tries to shame you,\u201d Surniak says. \u201cLike, \u2018You can\u2019t buy that coffee. Save your money.\u2019 No, let them have the coffee they really love. Let them get that annual pass to Disneyland. Let them have a weekly night at the movies, even if they go alone. The world is so weird right now. What we can do is find joy<\/a> in tiny things. <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A fairy at a media preview for North Hollywood\u2019s new Witch\u2019s Cottage. <\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to give adults the opportunity to say \u2018I\u2019m a fairy,\u2019 is the best feeling ever,\u201d Surniak continues. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not just at Renaissance fairs. Be a fairy here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or be anyone. A sign near one of the restaurant\u2019s restrooms makes it clear it doesn\u2019t matter which one guests use. It asks that they simply wash their hands. \u201cYou can walk in as a witch, or a dragon, or just a FedEx worker,\u201d Ozymandias says. \u201cThere\u2019s no judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Witch\u2019s Cottage had its grand opening this weekend, and the community immediately responded with lines out the door. That wasn\u2019t entirely surprising \u2014 the project was built by a collective. More than 200 volunteers donated more than 3,000 hours to bring the space to life, and the two founders attracted more than 100 investors via an online crowd-funding campaign<\/a> that raised more than $167,000. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re regular people,\u201d Surniak says. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of money. We don\u2019t have a nest egg. We don\u2019t own property. If we were going to do anything, we would need help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surniak says within three days of creating their campaign, they found an angel investor who offered them the funds to secure the building. Other investors followed, including Ana Lovelis and her husband Kenny Enea, known in the area for the elaborate haunted houses they have hosted at their home<\/a>. The two joined as creative partners and helped with construction. Lovelis says she recognized in the Witch\u2019s Cottage a similar outlook on life as hers. She recalled once years ago dating someone who had a skeptical and practical view of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then there was me, being like, \u2018That butterfly is a sign from my grandma,\u2019\u201d Lovelis says. The Witch\u2019s Cottage, she says, is reflective of viewing the world through a magical lens. At a time of much stress for many, such a place may be needed. As Lovelis says, \u201cWhat\u2019s the harm?\u201d <\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Witch\u2019s Cottage is a two-story space that serves as a cafe during the day and a restaurant at night. Dinner service begins at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n

Surniak still has a day job, working as a stunt and intimacy coordinator on theatrical and Hollywood productions. Ozymandias, who previously worked in the local theater world, is focusing primarily on the Witch\u2019s Cottage at the moment, helping to devise recipes and ensure the bakery can accommodate as many dietary restrictions as possible. <\/p>\n

Beyond new menu items, there\u2019s more in the works, including community events like sound baths, comedy nights and classes on composting, native plants and parenting. Or even some workshops that are more lighthearted, such as a hoped-for night on how to make a broom. <\/p>\n

Hidden behind the upstairs bar is what\u2019s called the Tempered Flask Tavern, and it\u2019s an elaborate tabletop role-playing game room. Here, one will find a smoke-puffing dragon, but also digital windows that game masters can use to trigger various effects. A long table sits at its center, flanked by a knight, a digital fireplace and weaponry. Not open yet, the plan is for the room to be rented out by the hour.<\/p>\n

\"A \"Tabletop <\/p>\n

The Tempered Flask Tavern is a hidden room dedicated to tabletop games inside the Witch\u2019s Cottage. It will be available soon for guests to rent out.<\/p>\n

Though Surniak and Ozymandias say they\u2019ve been building vision boards for more than a decade of what the spot could look like, recent cultural shifts gave them the confidence that the timing was right. They point to \u201cStranger Things\u201d and how it spawned a conversation around \u201cDungeons & Dragons,\u201d or the success <\/a>of Disney+ series \u201cAgatha All Along.\u201d More locally, they watched the rise of a game-focused bar such as the Roguelike Tavern<\/a>, which is relocating to Studio City, as well as the news that experiential art firm Meow Wolf <\/a>would be building an exposition in the city.<\/p>\n

Taken as a whole, they felt bolstered that North Hollywood could support a heavily themed cafe, <\/a>a home for those who have rolled a 20-sided die<\/a>, once looked up the meaning of the Tower card or just enjoyed a viewing of \u201cThe Lord of the Rings.\u201d <\/p>\n

But one need not know the inner workings of RPGs, tarot or Middle-earth to feel at home in the Witch\u2019s Cottage. This is a space, after all, for anyone who has ever been touched by a fairy tale, dreamed of the fantastical or wanted to believe in the power of wishing upon a star.<\/p>\n

\"LOS \"LOS \"Views <\/p>\n

Views from inside North Hollywood\u2019s the Witch\u2019s Cottage. <\/p>\n

So spend a little time in the Witch\u2019s Cottage, and maybe you\u2019ll start to imagine that cocktail is a potion, and those deviled eggs did in fact hatch from a dragon. Diners may debate between the \u201ciron forged fondue melt\u201d (a patty melt) or the \u201cmeze heartwich\u201d (a white bean pur\u00e9e on sourdough), but childlike wonder is the specialty of the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is somebody\u2019s kid,\u201d Ozymandias says. \u201cAnd I just want a safe space for people\u2019s kids. Even if you\u2019re 50, or 80, you\u2019re my kid. I want you to feel loved, and to have a cup of something warm or magical. I want you to know that whatever is outside those doors, when you\u2019re in here, I got you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hear the name the Witch\u2019s Cottage and you might conjure a mystical vision. And inside the new North…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[90969,15017,49608,90967,69420,90970,1073,48,52,51,1637,47,50,49,7495,24925,1744,90968,90971,63743,8074],"class_list":{"0":"post-194769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ana-lovelis","9":"tag-bar","10":"tag-cottage","11":"tag-danielle-ozymandias","12":"tag-dragon","13":"tag-fairy","14":"tag-home","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-la-headlines","17":"tag-la-news","18":"tag-life","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","21":"tag-los-angeles-news","22":"tag-north-hollywood","23":"tag-sound","24":"tag-space","25":"tag-surniak","26":"tag-tiny-door","27":"tag-witch","28":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194769","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=194769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}