Garden on a plate: sweet corn raviolini with cherry tomatoes, English peas, and fava beans
Photo courtesy of Aaron Cook
Five minutes into my meeting with Quinn and Karen Hatfield, I developed a bit of a crush. They’re talented, funny, and charming. I was smitten — and I’m not the only one. The duo won over San Francisco with their cooking at Cortez, and then broke hearts when they moved back to Los Angeles to open their own place. Their eponymous 40-seat restaurant opened to almost instant success, making our Hot Table list, among many others. But it didn’t feel quite right to them.
“It’s funny,” Quinn says, “The dream of the small restaurant is that you’ll be able to do everything.” Instead, they found their tiny kitchen frustrating and hated having to turn away people because they didn’t have a bar or extra seats. “You have so many more outlets at a larger restaurant,” he says.
They set out looking for the perfect space and, in May, found it: the sprawling corner of buzzy Melrose and Citrus Avenues, right next to Mozza, Nancy Silverton and Mario Batali’s ode to pizza. They’ll have 70 seats, a large bar area, private dining rooms, and a back patio with retractable roof — plus a massive kitchen. The new restaurant will be Hatfields 2.0 — not radically different but with a larger menu of ultra-seasonal California French dishes, a longer wine list, and more breathing room between tables. The couple is most excited about their new bar menu. Karen is working on the cocktail program, while Quinn has been happily designing delicious small bites. His biggest success yet? Sous-vide chicken tenders, which have passed muster with two tough palates: Karen and their two-year-old daughter, Paige.
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