The Hungry Cat in Hollywood is closing after 15 years
The Hungry Cat, chef David Lentz’s seafood restaurant in Hollywood, will close at the end of June after a 15-year run. The lease on the location is up on the first of July and will not be renewed.
“I’m kind of sad,” Lentz said by phone today. “It’s tough these days; the rent’s too high.”
The chef will have one last Crab Fest, likely on June 23. “I think we’re going to get a band,” said Lentz. “I want the next six weeks to be a good time.”
Lentz opened the Hungry Cat in 2006 on the busy corner of Hollywood and Vine and began his annual blue crab events the same year. Lentz grew up in Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay, and has specialized in seafood at the Hollywood restaurant and in the two other Hungry Cat locations he opened, one in Santa Monica and a third in Santa Barbara. (Both closed in 2016.)
Lentz said that he does not have plans for another restaurant, at least not yet.
“Not right now,” he said. “I think I’m going to take a sabbatical and hang out with the kids.” Lentz and his wife, Suzanne Goin, whose own restaurants include Lucques in West Hollywood and the nearby A.O.C., have three children.
“I love the business, I love to cook and I’m thinking about some ideas; I might do a cookbook,” he said. “It’s time to do something else.”
1535 N. Vine St., Hollywood; (323) 462-2155; thehungrycat.com.
Instagram: @AScattergood
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