Gucci osteria de massimo Bottura makes the ‘the chic list’

Feast your eyes…and your stomach on the Gucci Osteria de Massimo Bottura, where your boutique-sized Italian cuisine is served with a large helping of fashion. Bon appetit, indeed!

But before, I get into the Gucci goods, I must take you to the very beginning…

On another mundane morning, breakfast and the promise of coffee immediately get me out of bed in the morning. But last Sunday, I languorously slipped out of my white lace duvet, emerging from the cocoon in a matching cloud-colored nightgown with similar trimmings. I felt like Audrey Hepburn in Paris When it Sizzles, especially whilst dusting makeup on my face before my metallic gold vanity. I wasn’t dragging my feet to get to the reservation my blogger bestie Mari Makatsaria made for us a month in advance (well, I was dreading a 100-mile drive, to what was once my backyard—I used to live in Beverly Hills). No, I was savoring the getting-ready process, making it a ritual rather than a rush, while listening to Dean Martin and Ella Fitzgerald.

My life has been run by tight deadlines since I began my first job as an on-camera reporter at 23ABC…That Sunday, I wanted to rewind, and slow-mo the vintage film I always imagine my life to be… one with classical music playing in the backdrop, a one-of-a-kind wardrobe, flawless makeup that prioritizes winged-tip eyeliner and bold eyebrows and luxurious settings.

Once I slipped into my satin lime dress with puff sleeves and slits in all the right places on, I mounted my steed (those that have been following me for a while know that my white Mercedes has been christened Maximus, after the horse in Tangled), placed my jacquard strappy heels onto the gas pedal and cantered across the freeway with inexplicable excitement.

Suffice to say I made it to Rodeo Drive only a couple minutes late, but fashionably! My dress swished back and forth [hopefully] glamorously as I power walked to the mint argyle Gucci flagship storefront and to the vibrant floral hostess area to check in. After checking my temperature (a reminder that we’re still in a pandemic), I rode the lift up to the open-air dining area on the rooftop.

Let me just say that if I wasn’t wearing a mask, the waiters and their tables would have witnessed my job dropping to the wooden and Persian-rugged floor. Yes, I had scoured through a myriad of pictures of the LA-based Gucci restaurant, but this oasis exceeded my wildest dreams:

After becoming accustomed to the four white walls of my home and now my new apartment during the pandemic, I felt the world open up before me within the pastel Japanese wallpapered and marble walls of the osteria. The ornate mirrors were something right out of Marie Antoinette’s bedroom. To sit in California cool wicker chairs while awaiting our meal was a study in contrasts that somehow worked. And the same goes for Chef Massimo Bottura’s menu, which is a marriage between California and Italian cuisine. You can bet that Mari and I, two fashion-forward foodies, were ready to devour the boutique-sized, but piquant affair! We started with a refreshing V&T cocktail, rose spritzer with a splash of lemon puree. The appertif paired harmoniously with our assortment of fresh-baked bread and butter: one garnished with bee pollen and a whipped butter with fresh ground better. “Even the food and cutlery is beautiful,” I told Mari. “I haven’t been this in awe of a restaurant’s china since tea at Fortnum and Mason!” The flora and fauna dishes reflect the fabrics of a men’s Gucci suit fresh off the runway. The main attraction was the pasta, but my absolute favorite part of the meal was the desert: “Oops, I Dropped the Meringue.” The cracked meringue twinned with the plate it came on, and the raspberry desert tasted as heavenly as it looked.  

I needed this dining experience more than I could say. For a couple hours, the “new normal” of the last year seemed to fall away, save for the osteria’s immaculate dedication to following CDC guidelines—mask wearing, social distancing, temperature checking, the world health works.

What new restaurant are you excited to try?

Keeping it Krischic,

Kristin Vartan

Also Check Me Out On: 23ABC, ABC7 LA, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, E! News, Darling Magazine, Pepperdine Graphic, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok!

Follow Me on BlogLovin