While most restaurateurs are either downsizing or fighting to keep afloat amid the coronavirus, Scratch Restaurant Group Owners Phillip Frankland Lee and Margarita Kallas-Lee have found a way to expand their footprint. Since the emergence of the virus in March, the culinary powerhouse husband-and-wife duo have debuted two new concepts in the Encino Place shopping center on Ventura Boulevard: Pasta Bar, which opened in June, and Leviathan, which opened Sept. 4. Both are a stone’s throw from the group’s Scratch Bar & Kitchen location, also in Encino Place. Phillip Lee, an Encino native, told the Business Journal the pandemic has forced small business owners like him to make a choice: “wallow or find a way through.” When confronted by the shopping center’s landlord about a vacancy in a ground-level courtyard-adjacent unit left behind by the shuttered Urban Salad Bar – a buffet-style pay-by-weight concept – Lee pounced on the opportunity. “We thought about reopening Scratch Bar there … but we didn’t think (the time) was right yet for that concept and that style of dining,” he said. “We wanted to do something a little more casual.” While Scratch Bar has an intimate, 20-plus-course tasting menu, Leviathan is a small-plate seafood oasis designed for the pandemic economy. The restaurant exists entirely outdoors, even the kitchen, which consists of a brick hearth where chefs cook fresh fish and shellfish over open flame. An outdoor chef’s counter seats six, while four socially distanced tables seat another 10, making it the second largest Scratch restaurant behind Scratch Bar, which seats 22. Leviathan’s a-la-carte, walk-in-friendly model differs from the other Scratch concepts, which are small chef counters that serve pre-determined courses and require reservations long in advance. Lee said managing an outdoor restaurant won’t present much of a learning curve since his Scratch Bar, Sushi Bar and Pasta Bar concepts switched to patio-only operations early during the state’s ban on indoor dining. “The major difference is going to be in service style and offerings,” he said. Leading Leviathan will be Chef Dylan Stage, who rose to prominence at Michelin-starred restaurants in Spain, including Comerç24 in Barcelona and Diverxo in Madrid, and later in New York City. In addition to Leviathan, the Scratch Restaurants roster consists of the flagship Scratch Bar in Encino, two speakeasy Sushi Bar locations in Encino and at Montecito Inn, and the recently opened Pasta Bar in Encino. Kallas-Lee, an acclaimed pastry chef, runs the dessert programs for Scratch Restaurants. Lee had a few months to work on Leviathan’s concept and design, but he said Scratch’s other mid-pandemic debut, Pasta Bar, was an epic scramble. “That was five days from inception to when the first plate was served,” he added. After Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted the strictest of his dining room restrictions at the end of May, Lee said, income from takeout orders at Sushi Bar and Scratch Bar suffered. “Once people could go to restaurants again, they stopped ordering takeout. We needed to pivot,” he said, explaining that distancing requirements prevented him from reopening Scratch Bar for on-premise dining. On a whim, Lee and his team transformed the vacant half of the former Woodley Proper space on the plaza’s second floor into a multi-course Italian tasting menu prepared by Chef Kane Sorrells. The other half is occupied by Sushi Bar, which Lee opened after Woodley Proper’s closure in April 2019. Lee said Pasta Bar enjoyed about a week of business before a new round of restrictions forced the closure of its indoor dining room, which relocated to an outdoor patio. He said the constantly changing regulations have been one of the most challenging aspects of doing business during the pandemic. “It’s not an easy time right now … but I choose to look at it as a fun challenge,” he added.
