A Romanesque Revival church on Griffith Park Boulevard has been serving dinner in its sanctuary since September 14. Over roughly seven weeks this fall, Silver Lake gained a 25-room hotel, a Brazilian-Italian restaurant and a late-night diner, and a sourdough bakery was scheduled to open on Hyperion. Not one of them needed a new building.
Each moved into a room another tenant had already built, named or made famous. Several of the newcomers also come with long track records elsewhere: a diner founded in 1993, a hotelier that specializes in old structures, a bakery that started in a Santa Monica family kitchen.
A Sanctuary That Now Seats About 120
The building at 1629 Griffith Park Boulevard, at Lucile Avenue, went up in 1931 as Bethany Presbyterian Church. Hotel Lucile gives the style as Romanesque Revival, and Casetta's opening announcement names the original architect as Scott Quintin. Its later lives were less churchly. East West Players was based there early on, other congregations came after, and an antique market followed. The Los Angeles Times adds filming and a run as the backdrop for the interactive horror show "Delusion" to the list.
Turning it into a hotel took longer than any of those uses lasted. The Times describes more than a decade of neighborhood debate, city hearings and a bankruptcy. Permits for a hotel with alcohol and dancing were approved in 2014 over objections from many nearby homeowners and businesses. In 2020, Los Angeles-based Casetta Group took over the long-term lease from the Presbytery of the Pacific, which still owns the property. Casetta specializes in adapting older buildings. Its other properties include the Surfrider Hotel in Malibu and Casa Cody in Palm Springs.
What survived is easy to see. The stained glass, arches, masonry, woodwork and original beams are still there. The rooftop cross is lit at night, though the church bell stays silent. Inside, most of the church's rooms do new jobs:
- The church school now holds the 25 guest rooms.
- The organ loft is a meeting space.
- The choir loft serves coffee and drinks.
- The roof is a lounge with views of downtown.
The sanctuary is now Sous Sous, which opened Monday, September 14. The De La Nonna team runs it with Casetta Hotels, with chef Patrick Costa in the kitchen and Lee Zaremba as operations and beverage director. It is dinner only and seats about 120. The menu draws on the South of France and the American South, and live music plays now and then from the room's stage. Its Resy page recommends booking ahead and says some seats are kept for walk-ins.
Two details matter more to neighbors than to visitors. The hotel has no on-site parking. Guests and diners depend on valets and on street parking near Sunset Junction, which the Times calls already tight. Rooms start at $441 a night plus a $50 amenity fee, and at opening the hotel offered 15% off to guests with a California state ID. For locals, that means a staycation a few blocks from home, in a building many have walked past for years without ever going inside.
The Corner at Sunset and Descanso, Back to Being a Diner
The church is the longest history in this group. The storefront at 3200 Sunset Boulevard, at Descanso Drive, shows a more common Silver Lake pattern: one space with several owners in quick succession. It was Samosa House until 2019. That year, Lien Ta and Jonathan Whitener opened All Day Baby there as an all-day diner, bar and bakery. The smash-burger shop Heavy Handed came next.
On Tuesday, October 20, the corner became a diner again under a much older name. Eater LA reported that Swingers would open its Silver Lake takeout window that day, with owner Stephanie Wilson planning to open the dining room in December. The original Swingers opened in 1993 at the base of the Beverly Laurel Motor Hotel, on the edge of the Fairfax District and Beverly Grove. It has 1960s styling and vintage coffee-shop signage. Wilson, a longtime general manager there, bought the business in 2020 and kept it open.
Her reason for coming to Silver Lake is the clearest explanation any of these openings offers. She told the Los Angeles Times that regulars she hadn't seen in a while kept telling her where they'd gone:
"They say, 'We've moved to Silver Lake,' 'We've moved to Echo Park,' and so I thought, 'We should go check out the Eastside, and it really feels like a perfect fit for our little diner.'"
She has also said she wants to recognize the room's previous diner. The Times reports that Wilson is talking with Whitener's friends and former colleagues about a dish or another tribute. For now, the side window serves tuna melts, meatloaf, burgers, omelets and milkshakes from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. Breakfast and lunch will come once the dining room opens, along with a jukebox, a photo booth, terrazzo floors and a pie case.
Two Smaller Handoffs, on Sunset and on Hyperion
The other two openings follow the same pattern on a smaller scale. At 3131 West Sunset Boulevard, Briciola opened in mid-September in the former Spoon & Pork space. Eater LA credits Mattia Raimondi as the restaurant's originator and Matteo Di Nicola as the chef who helped develop the menu. The cooking puts Brazilian ingredients into Italian dishes, including bolinho de bacalhau, cachaça cavatappi, and branzino in a coconut-pepper sauce. The tenant before it had a typical Eastside start. Spoon & Pork began as a food truck in 2017, opened in Silver Lake in 2019, later expanded to West LA, and has since closed.
On Hyperion Avenue, Jyan Isaac Bread was scheduled to open its second permanent location at number 2800 on Monday, November 2. Both the Eastsider and WhatNow reported that date. The space used to be Say Cheese, a wine-and-cafe business. The bakery has its own origin story. Founder Jyan Isaac Horwitz was 19 and on the bread team at Gjusta when he lost that job in 2020. He began baking sourdough in his family's kitchen and selling loaves to neighbors.
The Hyperion location is meant to be more of a cafe than the Santa Monica original. Plans call for 1,219 square feet indoors with 22 seats, a 204-square-foot patio with 12 more, and beer and wine. On the menu: City Sourdough, marbled rye, multigrain porridge bread, fermented bagels and cereal milk French toast.
Four Addresses, Side by Side
Seen together, the four openings show the same pattern.
| Address | Earlier occupants | Now | Status heading into November |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1629 Griffith Park Blvd | Bethany Presbyterian Church, other congregations, East West Players, an antique market | Hotel Lucile and Sous Sous | Open since September 14, dinner only |
| 3200 Sunset Blvd | Samosa House, All Day Baby, Heavy Handed | Swingers | Takeout window 6 p.m. to 3 a.m.; dining room planned for December |
| 3131 W. Sunset Blvd | Spoon & Pork | Briciola | Open since mid-September |
| 2800 Hyperion Ave | Say Cheese | Jyan Isaac Bread | Scheduled to open November 2 |
Not one entry in the middle column was torn down to make room for the next. One church went through at least four kinds of use before it became a hotel. One corner on Sunset has now held four restaurants.
Where the New Rooms Sit in an Ordinary Week
All four are close to the walkable stretch around Sunset Junction. The Times names the Silver Lake Farmers Market, Taiwanese restaurant Pine & Crane, sports bar 33 Taps and the Photobooth Museum as the area's established anchors. The new places spread across the whole day. Jyan Isaac Bread is set to cover bagels and weekday lunch on Hyperion. Briciola and Sous Sous take dinner on either side of the Junction. Swingers' window serves food after almost everything else on Sunset has closed. Once the Swingers dining room opens in December, the corner at Descanso will cover breakfast through 3 a.m. That's longer hours than any of its three previous tenants kept.
If you own a building in Silver Lake with a past of its own, whether a 1930s church, a storefront that has changed hands several times, or a hillside house whose architect deserves credit, George Penner Team can help document that history and present it accurately to the buyers most likely to value it. Contact Us to talk about the story your property already has.