Lilo Ready to Debut in Carlsbad
Hard to overstate it—restaurateur John Resnick and chef Eric Bost have rewritten the book of North County’s food culture. But after fighting to the top, facing headwinds at the apex, losing—then finding—their footing, they’re back, and poised to be better than ever.
In a few weeks, they’ll open Lilo, their fourth restaurant together. Its debut will mark the end of a long, often intense, beautiful story with all signs pointing to a happy ending. But let’s start at the beginning.
2020 was a fairly terrible year for Bost (and yes, the world.) He’d spent 20 years working his way up through some of the world’s best kitchens—Le Cirque, Ritz, Alain Ducasse, Lodge at Torrey Pines, Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, then as executive chef for Guy Savoy in Vegas and Singapore. In 2017, he came back to SoCal and spent two years developing the first restaurant of his own. The unpretentious tasting-menu restaurant Auburn opened on Melrose in LA in 2019.
The world’s best chefs came to eat: Rene Redzepi of Noma, Grant Achatz (Alinea), Savoy. It was widely, widely loved. Then, on the day of Auburn’s one-year anniversary, all LA restaurant dining rooms were ordered to shutter due to Covid. That chapter, the one he’d written in sweat and blood, was closed.
But then, Bost took over the kitchen at Jeune et Jolie. Jeune was Resnick’s first restaurant that he opened four years earlier with his original partner-chef Andrew Bachelier, who departed the restaurant during the pandemic’s carnage. (With his talent, it’s no coincidence that Jeune earned its first Michelin star the very next year.) Picking up where Bachelier left off, Bost then added its sister restaurant and shrine to smoke Campfire to his purview (also Michelin-recognized), only to be followed by Wildland, which debuted late last year.
Now, it’s time for Lilo, the latest project from the pair, which opens on Thursday, April 17. It will retain the same type of narrative thread both men have tried to weave between all of the restaurants, but at an even higher level of execution and attention to detail.
“Sometimes we kind of talk about our restaurants like they’re all different perspectives on the same thing,” says Resnick, which to him, is connecting with guests through intentional design, high-level techniques in the kitchen, the best ingredients, and an engaged team. To Bost, Lilo is an opportunity to give guests [a chance] to taste his creations through a new lens.
“Jeune is like a modern bistro—the starting point is France, but it’s really through the lens of Southern California,” he explains. “Campfire is much more wood driven, maybe more singular in approach, from a cooking style perspective [with] West Coast flavors. Wildland is much more Mediterranean as an aspect. But again, all these restaurants feel Californian—farm, acidity, bright, freshness, vegetal, all those notes. Lilo is really meant to be, I think, just a bit more American-inspired.”
Bost says Lilo will remain Californian at its base, still using plenty of local ingredients and seasonal bounty, with a deep emphasis on coastal flair and inspiration from other places he feels are “kindred spirits” from around the world. One thing it won’t be, he promises, is boring.
Lilo’s immersive chef’s counter format will run through 10 to 12 courses over a 2.5-hour span. “People are giving us a big chunk of their time,” he says. “We just want to make sure that people can kind of stay on the edge of their seats and really be engaged… fully, the whole time.”
Each meal will begin in the garden with a welcome aperitif and small bite before moving inside. The intimate space, designed by Bells + Whistles—who also designed the first three restaurants, plus Animae and the new iteration of Starlite—only holds 22 guests at a time, utilizing natural elements to play with the idea of indoor-outdoor dining. With that emphasis on nature in mind, Bost says one course he’s particularly excited to debut is a spot prawn dish at the beginning of the tasting menu.
“We’ve taken the spot prawns—they’re just killed, so served like, almost completely raw,” he explains, with a sauce made of sea buckthorn, gooseberry, lime leaves from Girl & Dug, and a little bit of serrano peppers, served with ice plants in a cold bowl to make the heat from the chile pop. Bost says that the interplay between the spot prawn’s oceanic umami with the acidity and heat makes it a good representation of the direction he’s going for—seasonal, dynamic, multilayered, intentional.
Other dishes on the initial menu include a canapé with grilled peas, egg yolk jam, shiso blossom, and topped with caviar; roasted California squab with burnt vanilla oil, preserved green juniper berries and a juniper au jus; and lots of layered flavors, fermentation and preservation.
Beverage pairings will play a role as well, with wine director Savannah Riedler (Saison) and beverage director Andrew Cordero (Jeune et Jolie, Campfire, Wildland) heading the drinks program. Guests will be able to choose between several pairing options: one alcoholic, with wine, sake, beer, and spirits. Second is a non-alcoholic option created in tandem with the bar and culinary team, and third is a mix between the two. (On a personal note, being able to mix-and-match drinks over a dozen courses is amazing. Other restaurants, please follow suit.)
Now finally on the cusp of opening, both Resnick and Bost describe a sense of bittersweet finality. “It’s the end of a four year journey,” explains Resnick. But in reality, it’s just the end of the start, and they’re both ready to finally begin Lilo’s story.
Lilo opens at 2571 Roosevelt Street in Carlsbad on Thursday, April 17. Reservations are now available through OpenTable.
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