Cadet restaurant in Santa Monica is closing

Cadet, Kris Tominaga’s French-inspired restaurant, will close Jan. 9, a representative for the restaurant said in an email to The Times on Tuesday. The restaurant has been open for a little more than a year.

Owner Jeff Weinstein has plans to change the restaurant to a yet-to-be-released concept, scheduled to open next spring.

“They are closing because it was not financially viable and will be doing their best to reposition the staff at their other restaurants or friend’s restaurants,” the representative said.

Before Cadet, Tominaga cooked with Brian Dunsmoor at the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing pop-up in Venice. He became famous for his and Dunsmoor’s biscuits at The Hart and the Hunter in the Palihotel in Beverly Grove, and he helmed the kitchen at the Ladies’ Gunboat Society at Flores on Sawtelle Boulevard.

In Jonathan Gold’s review, he compared Cadet to a Robert Plant solo album. “Cool in its way, impeccably put together and even worth revisiting now and again, but it is difficult not to contemplate the day the band might get back together.”

2518 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 828-3300, www.cadetsm.com.

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