Written by JENN TANAKA. Featured in Performances Magazine, L.A. Master Chorale, December 2025 Issue
Darling in West Hollywood: Greatness emerges when passion and creativity collide. SEAN BROCK’S EXPERIENCE at a listening lounge in Japan unleashed a new passion: He had noticed the connection between music and dining, how sounds and flavors together triggered memories. Now, one ponders the fascinating relationship of food, time and place when dining at his new Darling.
In West Hollywood, Brock recreated his own hi-fi listening lounge. A rotation of his personal vinyl is piped into the 90-seat space and those 45 rpms become an integral part of the experience. The sound system sets the restaurant’s tempo. But for the James Beard Foundation-honored chef, the story at Darling still begins with the ingredients. “We’re chasing this moment, when we’re capturing the food at its perfection,” he said on PBS’s Mind of a Chef. “The person who grew it harvested at its prime time.”
Brock’s previous restaurants celebrated Appalachian and lowcountry cooking. At Darling, his enthusiasm for California’s terroir and locally harvested produce emerges. The menu was developed with Husk alum Ben Norton, who oversees the kitchen; Brock splits his time between L.A. and Nashville. Both were blown away by California stonefruit; the opening menu featured several varieties of plums. But as the season changes, so does the menu. In fact, it changes every month.
For fall, chanterelles and a creamy celeriac hollandaise garnish a grilled bone-in strip steak. A reconfigured pizza oven burns citrus, oak and almond woods. The restaurant’s dry-aged steak burger, made with grilled Holstein beef, is Darling’s viral dish. No surprise—L.A. is the land of cheeseburgers, after all. As the patty cooks, it’s basted with drippings. Then it’s sandwiched inside Glassell Park’s Bub and Grandma’s sesame seed bun and layered with raw onion, a cornichon secret sauce and melted Monterey Jack cheese.
The kitchen prepares 24 burgers each evening, encouraging diners to try other dishes. Beyond the listening-lounge inspiration, Japanese influences emerge: Crunchy red kuri mochi fritters, oysters laden with umamipacked dashi jelly, and peanut amazake with shiso vinegar on apple sorbet for dessert.
Brock and Norton are inspired by the bounty of Santa Monica’s farmers market and seafood caught off the California coast. Tastes of southeast Asia—honey-calamansi vinaigrette on a market lettuce & herb salad, turmeric and young ginger in a yellowfin tuna tartare —showcase L.A.’s world influences.
A local abalone dish is a menu item that Brock plans to keep. It’s served with a celtuce stew filled with soulful flavors, a nod to his southern lineage. It also harks back to southern California’s coastline in the 1950s, when residents harvested abalone from shore, and looks to a hopeful future.
Bar veteran Jason Lee concocts the drinks. He’s known for his modern spins on classics, infusing milk punches and negronis with spices and seasonal ingredients to match what’s coming out of the kitchen.
Lee elevated the cocktails at other L.A. hotspots such as Baroo, n/soto and Pija Place. The drinks are named after seasonal produce: Sunchoke, Squash, Quince, Apple. An amaro and gin cocktail sips like a passionfruit-chai cream soda.
A dirty martini-inspired drink is flavored with roasted sunchokes and white bitters.
True to Brock’s other restaurants, even the bread at Darling tells a story. It’s made with flour milled from the Tehachapi Grain Project, which is dedicated to California heritage grains that are drought-tolerant and low in gluten.
Brock is regarded as a savior of American heritage grains so it’s no surprise that he honors the project. Thanks to his work with Southern farmers and academics, Brock has also reintroduced long-overlooked native plants to our tables. He draws the connection between the food we consume today and its link to history—a process that continues even in bustling West Hollywood.
Grilled bread, Bordier butter, Nardello pepper jelly; below, dry-aged Holstein beef burger
“The history and the future of the plant, that changes the way you tell that story, the way you cook that plant,” Brock said on Mind of a Chef.
“Take that seed, put the knowledge of the ground … on a plate and preserve and share that story…. It’s a pretty fascinating thing.”
Read the rest of the issue: Performances Magazine | L.A. Master Chorale, December 2025
For more information, visit darling.la
Address: 631 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood
Phone: (323) 203-0236
Photo credits: Photo courtesy of Performances Magazine | L.A. Master Chorale, December 2025
