LA Eater: Evan Funke Partners With Real Estate Mogul for Mega Three-Level Beverly Hills Restaurant
Details are sparse but the eponymous Funke will serve regional Italian fare
Eater has learned that pasta maestro Evan Funke of Felix and Mother Wolf fame is planning an eponymous Beverly Hills restaurant in 2023: Funke will be a partnership with real estate magnate Kurt Rappaport and will serve regional Italian fare. The 180-seat, three-level restaurant clocks in under Mother Wolf’s 200-plus seats but offers much more space than Venice’s cozy Felix. Located at 9388 Santa Monica Boulevard, Funke will be smack-dab in the middle of Beverly Hills’s dining epicenter near hotspots like modern Mexican restaurant Mírame and stalwarts like Wally’s Wine Bar.
Funke tells Eater, “This restaurant is a culmination of my time spent in Italy over the last 15 years. Kurt and I have come together on an extraordinary project and we can’t wait to share it with Los Angeles.”
According to the new restaurant’s Instagram, spring 2023 is targeted for the opening, with a representative pinpointing March. The architect/designer is Dan Brunn, and interiors will be by Clint Nicholas. Funke was attached to another Beverly Hills project back in 2019 with his Felix partners (Janet Zuccarini’s Gusto 54 Restaurant Group out of Canada), as well as art dealer Larry Gagosian, but it never came to fruition.
Seeing as some of this year’s hottest restaurants — Funke’s Mother Wolf among them, as well as nearby Grandmaster Recorders in Hollywood — have specialized in upscale Italian fare, Angelenos are undoubtedly ready for another entrant. And given that Funke is putting his own name on this one, it promises to be a highly personal affair.
