Why fine dining is the next step for the chefs behind nonprofit Locol

In late September a light-purple square of an Instagram post caught the attention of fans of fine dining all over the world: Chefs Daniel Patterson and Keith Corbin said they would open a new restaurant, Jaca, next year in L.A.

It marks Patterson’s return to fine dining after leaving Coi, his Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurant, one of the country’s most influential tasting menu restaurants for nearly 16 years. In the time since he’s launched Locol, closed Locol, reopened Locol, teamed up with Corbin, opened Alta and created a nonprofit. Now he’s ready to return to fine dining with Corbin in creating Jaca, a Beverly Grove restaurant that the duo hopes to open in the spring.

While some details are still to be determined, here are five key things to know about Jaca, including its tandem wine bar, its tasting-menu format and where to find it.

Why Jaca now?

“A couple of years ago I felt the energy coming back, and now I’m ready,” Patterson said. “This is what I’ve done my whole life. It’s what I love to do. So I’m really excited to be able to get back in and do it but in a different way — building on the culture and the community connections that we have developed.”

By the time Patterson left Coi in 2015, he’d spent more than two decades running full tilt in professional kitchens, mostly in fine dining. “It was just nonstop, all of the work and the pressure and the 100-hour work week,” he said.

He wanted to focus on the first iteration of Locol, and in doing so met Corbin, who grew up in Watts and became his business partner. They opened Alta, and in the last near-decade Patterson became more ingrained in his neighborhood restaurants in Watts and West Adams. For years fine dining left his mind — until recently, when he began to get the itch.

“It’s just an energy I lost, and I didn’t know if it was going to come back,” Patterson said. “It was a little bit at a time and then it grew and it grew, and then it became kind of a compulsion. The work, the craft of it and the day to day, the ritual, I’m so ready for it.

“I like that it’s difficult. I like that we fail sometimes. I think that kind of cooking doesn’t work for me unless there’s risk taking.”

Corbin, the Alta executive chef whose soul food formed the backbone of Locol’s new iteration, is less familiar with fine dining. He said he plans to spend a lot of time in the kitchen with Patterson at Jaca, learning for himself.

“That’s Daniel’s level,” he said. “But what I do know is that I’m excited because for me, this is a graduation to another, higher level of learning.”

The format will vary

Two menus are planned: An earlier seating will serve an abbreviated number of courses because guests might not want or have the time for a multi-hour dinner. A later seating will offer a longer menu that could include as many as 10 or 15 courses.

Fine dining has shifted since Coi debuted in 2006, and that means Patterson and Corbin will also be brainstorming new ways to appeal to diners.

“When we opened Coi the food we were doing was very new, pushing boundaries, and it changed a lot of how people cook in the Bay Area and around the world,” Patterson said.

“At the same time, Instagram and the rise of this interest in food and food as entertainment means that a lot of the things that we did that were new are not new anymore. ... So we’re gonna have to figure out how to have that emotional impact.”

There’s an adjacent bar and bottle shop

Much like Adams Wine Shop, attached to Corbin and Patterson’s Alta restaurant, Jaca is also expected to open a next-door wine bar and bottle shop. Corbin and Patterson hope locals can drop in for a more casual experience.

“It’s been really important to have a way for our Alta community to come and connect, and give a few different price points,” Patterson said.

The dining room of Son of a Gun, a restaurant that closes this month, will become the home of new restaurant Jaca.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

They’re taking over the Son of a Gun space

Earlier this year Patterson called restaurateurs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, hoping to mine their knowledge of the city’s available buildings, when they gave him surprising news: They were considering closing their decade-old Beverly Grove stalwart Son of a Gun and offered Corbin and Patterson the space.

“I don’t think they were actively engaged in it [closing],” Patterson said. “I think it was just in our conversation that the idea popped in their head, and they were ready for it.”

After Son of a Gun closes on Oct. 12 they’ll remodel the space, removing the nautical-themed vestiges and adding Mid-Century Modern touches and sunset colors. The plan: two dozen seats, an open kitchen, five tables and an eight-seat counter.

It extends their education program

While Jaca won’t operate under Alta Community, the chefs’ new nonprofit that encompasses Locol and Alta, it’s destined to play a part in providing job placement and training for up-and-coming chefs in Watts and beyond.

Patterson, left, and Corbin in the kitchen of their recently reopened Locol, where they employ and train members of the Watts community.

(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)

Locol employs members of the Watts community, often at-risk youth, many who’ve never worked in professional kitchens before. After training at Locol, those who wish to keep working and learning can continue at Alta.

“It creates a pipeline of fluidity that I think is really hard to come by in the industry,” Patterson said.

Should employees want a culinary path in a fine-dining kitchen, after their time in Locol and Alta, Patterson and Corbin hope to train up-and-coming chefs at Jaca. It echoes the path of Corbin himself, who worked as a kitchen manager at Locol before becoming Patterson’s business partner and chef-owner at Alta.

“Can you imagine how hard it is to be starting out in the kitchen and think about even getting into a level of a restaurant like Jaca or Coi or Noma or any of those?” Corbin said. “To be able to have an entry point and work your way up to this third level because it’s already embedded in the program or in the company? That’s life changing.”