08/02/2019
After a great 20 years as a fab neighborhood restaurant in Venice, we will be closing the doors of Canal Club; that is the sister of James’ Beach.
James’ Beach (across the street) is modern American Comfort Food, so to give the neighborhood another option, we did the exact opposite at Canal Club and focused on experimentation and non-Traditional American food. Asian cuisine (sushi, noodles, towering tuna sashimi, whole fried fish and even Polynesian cuisine) and Latin cuisine (tacos, Cuban sandwiches and carne asada) that came off the wood grill were all on the menu. Canal Club was fire and water. Raw bar and wood grilled.
This restaurant, with its fun Frank Gehry / Billy Al Bengston interior was comfortable but not about comfort and so we also experimented with chefs. The famous Michael Roberts, as he battled MS, opened the restaurant. His famous brie and grape quesadilla from his West Hollywood landmark restaurant “Trumps” was on the menu and will now travel to James’ Beach. When Michael could no longer work, chef Shari stepped in and we followed with a number of up and coming chefs who have gone on to great things and now enjoy the food of Eduardo Posada. We did untraditional LA style Sushi with our friend Nick Nishi at the helm. Josè Aldana was at the bar making our famous margaritas and flaming tikis bowls. Saloman ran the ship (he’s coming over to James’ Beach). It was a Venice blast.
We love live music and after we closed Dannys, we wanted to bring back live music and dancing to Venice and have it at Canal Club. It was a long costly process that ultimately did not go through. On top of that, increasing labor and other costs (having two kitchens, a raw - sushi bar and hot kitchen was just too expensive) and a heart attack made us realize that it was time to find a new owner/chef to add their voice, vision and talent to the community.
We are excited that Jackson Kalb, who has Jame Enoteca in El Segundo is taking over the location. Food and Wine calls it “one of the best places to eat pasta in all of LA”. Jackson and Melissa (the Me of JaMe) care about food, neighborhood and people and they will be a great addition to a famous space and Venice.
In closing we remember many great times and friends. We remember starting the Venice Art Crawl there and all the neighborhood events. We opened on Halloween and had the best Halloween parties on the West Side! We remember starting our happy hour when the recession, in a less affluent Venice, made it too expensive for families to eat out. When one young family thanked us, saying the happy hour was the only time they could afford to eat out together, we knew we were doing well.
Thank you Venice and our landlords Werner, Simone and Ann for believing in us. We will be open to celebrate on Fridays and Saturdays through August and then we hope we’ll see everyone at James’ Beach which enters its 23rd year next month. Support your local restaurants.
Love, James and Daniel
