The Tasting Kitchen returns July 16, 2026 at 1633 Abbot Kinney Blvd after a March 2023 fire closed it for three years. Book it if you missed Casey Lane’s shrimp tagliolini, spaghetti pomodoro, bucatini all’Amatriciana, gnocco fritto, and roasted chicken. Also book it if the new Josper oven running on charcoal and wood interests you. Skip it if you want a hard reset: Lane calls the reopening “a restoration, not a rehabilitation”, and that tells you exactly what kind of meal this is.
Opening-week hours run Thursday through Sunday, 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM, expanding to Wednesday through Sunday the week of July 20. A $150 chef’s choice menu offers five dishes split into appetizers, mains, and sides. Reservations are live. Expect the first few weeks to book fast because this is a known Venice name returning after a long closure, not a quiet neighborhood opening.
What The Tasting Kitchen Reopening Brings to Venice
The Tasting Kitchen first opened in Venice in 2009 with chef Casey Lane, and its return fills a real gap on Abbot Kinney. If you live nearby, this is worth trying early for the pastas alone. If you are crossing town, go only if you want Lane’s version of a restored neighborhood Italian restaurant with a stronger fire-cooking section.
The March 2023 fire forced a full closure, and the rebuild included permits, construction oversight, and an interior refresh by Matt Winter of M Winter Design. That matters because this is not a quick patch job. The restaurant returns with updated furniture and seating across the dining room, mezzanine, and bar, so regulars should expect the bones of the old place with a cleaner 2026 reset.
Lane’s post-2009 work includes culinary program lead roles at Ghisallo and Jyan Isaac Bread, the menu at Viale de Romani in the La Peer Hotel before it closed in 2020, menus for Hotel Figueroa Downtown, and work with Palisociety on Marco Polo at the Silver Lake Pool & Inn and Simonette in Culver City. Translation: this is not a chef returning from nowhere. It is a chef with a long LA track record coming back to the room that made his name.
Casey Lane’s Return: Pastas First, Charcoal Second
Order the pastas first. The shrimp tagliolini, spaghetti pomodoro, and bucatini all’Amatriciana all return, with the bucatini refreshed with onion, Pecorino Romano, and tomato conserva. Gnocco fritto and roasted chicken also remain on the menu with slight adjustments. If you only book once, make the meal about these dishes, then add one fire-cooked plate.
The new kitchen addition is a Josper oven using charcoal and wood. The dish to test it is skin-on mackerel escabeche. If you want a larger main, look at turbot with pil pil verde or picanha steak with Spanish chimichurri and Bordelaise sauce. The expanded appetizer section includes stone fruit aguachile spot prawn, a crispy vegetable salad with broccolini, peas, sungolds, gooseberry, and puffed buckwheat, and braised pork, ’nduja, and béchamel croquettes.
The $150 chef’s choice menu includes five dishes split into appetizers, mains, and sides. That price puts The Tasting Kitchen in the same decision set as other chef-led LA neighborhood formats, including Marcus Jernmark’s $150 menu at Lielle in Pico-Robertson. The Tasting Kitchen is the better call if you want Venice, pasta, and live-fire dishes in one meal. Choose Lielle if you want a more composed tasting-menu format.
Lane sources from farmers’ markets in the morning and can put those finds on the menu that night. That is a reason to go more than once if the first meal lands. The cheese selection includes Chemin du Brûlé from Canada and Garrotxa from Spain, paired with culatello rillette and mandarinquat marmalata alongside prosciutto. This is where the reopened Tasting Kitchen moves beyond “bring back the old dishes” and gives regulars something to track.
The Fire, the Rebuild, and What Changed Inside
The March 2023 fire required a full rebuild, and Matt Winter of M Winter Design handled the interior rework. Expect a main dining room, mezzanine, and bar, not a single-room comeback. For a first visit, book the dining room if you want the most energy. Try the mezzanine if you want a calmer meal. Use the bar as the fallback if reservations are gone.
The team reconfigured the preparation and cooking line to accommodate the Josper oven. That changes what to order. Previously, the restaurant’s pull was pasta and roasted proteins. Now the grill station should drive part of the meal, especially through mackerel escabeche, turbot, and picanha steak.
The facade refresh is visible from Abbot Kinney Boulevard, and the interior keeps exposed brick, wood accents, and open-kitchen sightlines while updating furniture and lighting. That is the right direction for this reopening. Too much nostalgia would make it feel dated; too much reinvention would undercut the reason people cared about the return.
The risk is timing. Three years is long enough for regulars to change habits and for Venice diners to get used to booking elsewhere. The upside is that Lane had time to bring back the pastas, add the Josper section, and reopen with a clearer point of view. If service settles quickly, this should work for both old regulars and diners who only know the name.
Opening Menu Highlights and Booking Details
Opening-week hours are Thursday through Sunday, 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM, with service expanding to Wednesday through Sunday the week of July 20. The team plans to return to daily service with later weekend hours in August. If you want the easiest booking, do not wait for August. Go early, but avoid opening night if you are sensitive to first-service bumps.
Your order should be simple: shrimp tagliolini for the old Tasting Kitchen, bucatini all’Amatriciana with onion, Pecorino Romano, and tomato conserva for the updated classic, and skin-on mackerel escabeche for the Josper. Add picanha steak with Spanish chimichurri and Bordelaise sauce if you want a meat main, and start with stone fruit aguachile spot prawn if you want to see how far the menu now reaches beyond pasta.
At $150 for five dishes, the chef’s choice menu is worth booking if you are comfortable letting the kitchen steer. It is less useful if you want full a la carte control, especially on a first visit when the pastas and fire-cooked dishes are the point. For most diners, the smart move is to book once for the chef’s choice menu, then return later for a more targeted order at the bar.
Booking difficulty should be high at the start. Opening-week service is limited to Thursday through Sunday, 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM, and the return comes after a three-year closure. If the dining room is full, try the bar. If you want a quieter meal, ask for the mezzanine. If you want to watch the kitchen work through the Josper and pasta stations, ask for the main dining room.
Final call: book it if you care about Venice restaurants, Casey Lane’s pastas, or the new charcoal-and-wood section. The strongest case is the combination of returning dishes like shrimp tagliolini and bucatini all’Amatriciana with new Josper dishes like mackerel escabeche, turbot, and picanha steak. Skip it if you want a reinvention. This is a restoration, and that is the right reason to go.
