D.J. Olsen to head the new Black Cat in Silver Lake
D.J. Olsen, formerly the chef at Lou Wine Bar, is getting back into the cooking business. He says he’s going to be the chef at the new Black Cat at Sunset Junction in Silver Lake, which is scheduled to open in early October.
During his six-year tenure at Lou, Olsen earned a reputation for deceptively simple, deeply flavorful food based on whatever he found at the most recent farmers market. Indeed, Olsen and his pushcart were such familiar sights at the Wednesday Santa Monica market, that some may have mistakenly thought he worked there.
Olsen says the new Black Cat is being developed by the same management team that is behind the popular Village Idiot pub on Melrose Avenue. Olsen describes Black Cat as “a New York-style tavern, a neighborhood joint full of great libations and my seasonal, market-driven cooking.â€
Black Cat is in the same building and shares its name with the historical Los Angeles gay bar that was the site of one of the first public demonstrations by lesbian, gay and transgender protesters in 1967. It preceded the better-known demonstrations at New York’s Stonewall Inn by more than two years. The building was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2008.
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