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Per L’Ora is Hotel Per La’s new dining concept, blending coastal Italian cuisine with local Los Angeles flavors. (The Ingalls/Submitted)

Per L’Ora is Hotel Per La’s new dining concept, blending coastal Italian cuisine with local Los Angeles flavors. (The Ingalls/Submitted)

Nestled within the ornate and foliage-laden interior of the historic core’s Hotel Per La, walking into Per L’Ora transports guests into a space far removed from the energetic hustle of DTLA. The hotel restaurant is the property’s ground-floor signature dining venue, hoping to serve as a new neighborhood classic for Downtown.

“It’s a space that’s a healthy transition from the hustle and the grandeur of the world into this little portal of discovery,” said Jordan Nova, general manager of food and beverage at Hotel Per La. “Everything is draped in white linen with lots of lush greenery and foliage also inside the restaurant, so you almost move into this Downtown oasis… the whole thing is meant to be these moments of tension and discovery. … I think there’s a lot of things to discover and be surprised by, and it’s not any one point. It’s a triangulation of a lot of small little moments that we like to create.”

Drawing on the historic roots of the building as the former Bank of Italy, the restaurant’s main dining room boasts a golden coffered Italianate 20-foot ceiling and a marigold racetrack-shaped communal table. The bar, which acts as a dramatic centerpiece for the room, features a marble top coated with shades of green, gray and white beneath globe-shaped light fixtures.

The entire design is meant to present an air of both glamour and comfort, a blend that permeates into the restaurant’s menu as well. From easygoing Italian bites to a bold lineup of locally inspired mains, Per L’Ora sports a roster of dishes that are as diverse as they are flavorful.

“I think a lot of restaurants in this part of the country really focus on Californian cuisine, which is driven by the ingredients, the agriculture and the climate,” Nova described. “But from the point of view that our team takes, we’re really inspired by the cultures, which is more about stories. … It’s about communities, and we’re really using that as the jumping-off point for our creative pieces.”

The menu seeks to enhance the flavors of coastal Italy with notes of Los Angeles cuisine, featuring starters like arancini, beef crudo and Hamachi and main courses such as the bone in veal Milanese, cioppino and spatchcock chicken.

Their specialty pastas include the radiatori, which is a mix of pork sugo, almonds, scallions, tofu and Sichuan peppercorn, as well as the orecchiette, a birria oxtail ragu with scallion and Manchego.

The beverage menu features a collection of curated wines centered around the Mediterranean as well as inventive cocktails such as the “Oxymoron” made with St. George Terroir Gin, High West Campfire whiskey, Cotes du Rhone, guava and lemon, and “Owl’s Castle” made with Tenjaku Gin, Haku Vodka, Mancino Sakura, Nigori Sake and rose orange bitters.

“We’re really inspired by people,” Nova said. “If we’re thinking about the culinary team, the pastry team, the wine team or the bar team, the service team. … Everyone’s deeply inspired by Downtown LA and all of the things that make it such a cultural hub. … We really looked for people who have deep ties to LA, who have deep ties to Downtown … and who were all really true pros in their discipline.”

The culinary team at Per L’Ora is comprised of executive chef Courtney Van Dyke, a third-generation Angeleno who has spent her career leading acclaimed kitchens at the Montage Beverly Hills, Peninsula New York and Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire; director of bars Coleen Morton, who brings mixology and bar experience from neighboring DTLA bars such as the Redwood Bar and Grill, Spring Street Bar and El Dorado; director of wine Rick Arline, who gained experience across several five-star luxury hotels like the Montage Beverly Hills and Hotel Bel-Air; and pastry chef Sohrob Esmaili, previously from New York’s esteemed Jean Georges and Proper Hotel San Francisco.

“It’s interesting when you speak to each discipline, everyone really speaks about ‘our menus’ and not ‘their menu’ or their respective menu. … Everyone has a deep story in each ingredient that they create,” Nova explained. “With the lamb kibbeh dish, that is a recipe from one of chef Courtney’s dear friends’ grandmothers. She likes to say that she sees all of her friends on the menu.

“When you move into cocktails and you look at Coco’s menu, she is really pulling from deep Italian inspiration, but she’s also created cocktail menus that are really of the times from the way she has integrated low abv cocktails or the way she’s introduced distilled spirits that are zero proof alcohol or the way she’s even made wine cocktails. She’s really understood the rhythm of Downtown and built a cocktail list that moves with that everchanging rhythm.

“When you look at Rick Arline’s wine list … he’s really assured the rules of classical wine list blueprints and made something that resonates with our food and the varying flavors that come from being a truly Downtown LA-inspired restaurant. He’s kind of left those rules to create a wine list that focuses on climate and richness, but all of his wines have this remarkable flamboyance to them where you can’t just drink one sip. There’s nothing overly esoteric, and there’s nothing overly safe. They’re all just remarkable wines that are chosen with a high degree of confidence.”

Nova described the team as an “ensemble cast” working hand in hand within a co-dependent culinary ecosystem, a cast that is delighted to perform for an in-person audience once more. The aim is to generate a sense of discovery for each guest both as the move physically through Per L’Ora and mentally through its menu.

“For two years, especially on the coast, we were really starved for connection and really interacted with a few people,” Nova said. “That’s informed our approach to hospitality and to cuisine and beverage a little bit differently.”

Nova’s two approaches are to focus on technique, but also prioritize the “story” of the experience and the interaction with guests.

“We do have the same technique and same precision, but we let that take a backseat,” Nova explained. “What we really want to do is have cocktails, have wine, have food, have pastry, have music and have ambiance that allows you to connect with the people you’re sitting with and have a deep emotional connection in our space that we’ve facilitated.

“Being able to speak to a restaurant that’s really focused on creating human connection between people first rather than with the space first, I think, is a fun approach. It’s very exciting to be so inspired by Downtown, be a champion of Downtown, and create a restaurant that’s really inspired by Downtown and a true LA point of view.”

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