Lucques, an LA Dining Icon, to Close After 21 Years

After 21 years of shaping the culinary scene of Los Angeles, Lucques will close its doors on May 6. The restaurant founded by Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne proved itself as one of the city’s most beloved restaurants over the years, even as dining culture changed around it.

“It is with tremendous sadness and emotion that we announce today that after almost 21 years we will be closing our beloved restaurant Lucques,” said Goin and Styne in a statement. “Lucques has lived a long and wonderful life and become far more than the sum of its parts. We are so proud of what we have accomplished which was way beyond our wildest imagination when we opened our doors at 8474 Melrose Avenue on September 25, 1998. We could not have anticipated the immeasurable love and dedication that grew over time for a place that we both just wanted to feel like the restaurant WE always wanted to go to.”

Since opening, Goin has picked up accolades like a James Beard Award nomination Best Chef: West in 2006, and a win as Outstanding Chef in 2016; Styne won a James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur in 2018. Their cookbook, Supper at Lucques, also nabbed a Beard for Best Cookbook from a professional point of view in 2006.

Lucques will remain open for lunch, dinner, and bar service until it closes in May. Events such as a cookbook dinner for fellow LA chef Nancy Silverton’s Chi Spacca cookbook on April 26 will go ahead as planned, as will Sunday Suppers and Easter Dinner. Classic dishes will reappear on the menu, too, like bluefish wrapped in pancetta, suckling pig, and chorizo-stuffed lamb leg in addition to Goin’s latest menu for spring, which launched today.

Meanwhile, the duo’s other restaurants — AOC, Tavern, Larder Baking Company, and The Larder at Maple Drive — will continue to operate as usual.

“The highlight of it all has been beyond food, wine, service and atmosphere—it has been the relationships we have built with so many people who have come through our doors and lived their lives within the four walls of our first-born restaurant. We cherish those memories and they will live forever in our hearts.”

Fans can stop by for a meal or a glass of wine on the restaurant’s famously pleasant patio until it closes after service on May 6, 2020.