New restaurant at Descanso Gardens will offer weekend brunch and seasonal dinner service
Starting in October, in addition to cameras, binoculars, sketch pads and pencils, visitors to La Cañada’s Descanso Gardens will have to bring one other thing — their appetites.
Descanso officials — in partnership with Patina Restaurant Group, which has for years provided catering services and operated the on-site Descanso Café — recently announced plans to open a full-service restaurant that will begin offering weekend brunch Saturday, Oct. 1
Named for the classroom space the restaurant replaces, Maple aims to provide a family-friendly culinary experience that celebrates the garden’s shifting seasons. The menu will feature American comfort food classics with a subtle Latin influence, according to Master Chef and Patina founder Joachim Splichal.
Splichal explained while the idea for some sort of restaurant at Descanso floated around for awhile, it wasn’t until the 2015 arrival of Executive Chef Mark Salazar to Patina that a clear vision began to fall into place.
“[Salazar’s] menu pays homage to the natural garden setting, with inspiration from his own Mexican heritage,” Splichal said in an email interview. “The food will be elegant and rustic, cozy and refined, elevated and approachable for all ages — people are going to love it.”
Brunch highlights include buttermilk fried chicken n’ beignets, huevos rancheros with Guajillo-braised short rib, poached eggs, potato-fennel hash on crispy corn tortilla with cilantro and cotija cheese; and a Maple Burger with a beef patty, aged cheddar cheese, leafy greens, garden vegetables and a signature maple red wine dressing.
In addition to public brunch hours, which run Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Maple will offer a seasonal dinner service daily from 5 to 10 p.m. from Nov. 25 through Jan. 8 to coincide with Descanso’s interactive nighttime light exhibit “Enchanted: Forest of Light.”
Juliann Rooke, Descanso’s chief operating officer, said the timing of Maple’s opening with the arrival of “Enchanted” was fortuitous, as officials are continuously seeking new ways to attract and accommodate both visitors and potential new members.
“We’re an outdoor facility, and all our eating is done outdoors, so the concept of having something indoors has always been appealing,” Rooke said in an interview last week. “As many amenities we can offer our visitors and members, the better.”
Maple will seat about 60 guests in its interior space, with room for an additional 30 diners in its outdoor garden patio area. With little more than two weeks remaining until opening day, officials have confirmed the restaurant is already beginning to receive reservations.
Splichal — whose impressive credits include running the French-inspired Patina Restaurant at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Ray’s and Stark Bar at LACMA and Leatherby’s Café Rouge at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa — promises Maple will pay homage to Descanso’s unique setting.
“People won’t come here on the way to another location, or just because it’s convenient,” he said. “Maple will be a destination and experience all its own; an escape, if you will. And, believe me, it will be worth the trip.”
Reservations for brunch and dinner at Maple can be made at opentable.com or by calling (818) 949-4290. Tickets for “Enchanted: Forest of Light” are available at descansogardens.org.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
