In the middle of dinner service on a Tuesday evening in the fall, Providence restaurant lost its power. About half of the guests had made it through to the end of their meal. Others were at various stages of the multi-course tasting menu.
One couple had flown in from Germany just for the occasion. Another had traveled from China and was leaving the next morning. Elsewhere in the dining room, a party had driven all day from San Francisco. They were to stay just the night, then head back home.
There was no time to think about lost revenues, or the hours of prep and execution that went into that night’s menu. The staff, including co-owner Donato Poto and chef-owner Michael Cimarusti, quickly began calling other restaurants in the area, determined to find a home for each guest to spend the remainder of the evening. Could they get last-minute seats at Hayato, Kato, Funke, Mélisse or Meteora? Like Providence, many of these restaurants require months of planning for a reservation. Requests were made. Favors were called in.
What transpired that evening was the execution of a level of hospitality unmatched elsewhere in the city, and one the team at Providence has succeeded in maintaining for the last 20 years.
In Los Angeles restaurant years, that’s the equivalent of a lifetime. And the restaurant isn’t merely holding on. In 2025, Providence experienced its most celebrated year yet, earning three Michelin stars and a place on the first edition of the World’s 50 Best North America list.
It is a restaurant that has appeared on each iteration of this paper’s 101 Best Restaurants List since its inception in 2013.
When Poto, Cimarusti and partner Cristina Echiverri opened the Melrose Avenue restaurant in 2005, they helped establish Los Angeles as a world-renowned fine-dining destination. The three, along with longtime chef Tristan Aitchison, bar director Kim Stodel, wine director David Osenbach and pastry chef Mac Daniel Dimla, lead a stellar team of restaurant avengers.
The influence the Providence kitchen has had on the culinary landscape of Los Angeles is far-reaching, with alumni that have gone on to open restaurants around the world. In Los Angeles, Ari Kolander of Found Oyster, Brian Dunsmoor of Dunsmoor, William Joo at Pizzeria Sei, Chris Dane of Lucky Bird, Sam Baxter at Connie and Ted’s, Cathy Asapahu behind Ayara Thai, and dozens more have cooked in the Providence kitchen.
With each year, Cimarusti doubles down on his commitment to sustainability. The restaurant composts, uses byproducts of kitchen ingredients in cocktails, sources various herbs and other ingredients from a rooftop garden and tends to a rooftop bee yard for honey.
I sat down with Cimarusti, Poto and Echiverri to discuss the last 20 years at Providence, and what’s next for the restaurant. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
How has Providence changed over the years? How is it different from when you started?
Cimarusti: It’s always been aspirational. But I think we had no idea of what kind of restaurant we wanted, and at the moment, didn’t have the ability to pull it off. No matter how hard we worked, Donato and I and everyone, it was always something that was going to take a while to evolve into itself. I think earning the third star this year, that’s a big goal achieved but that doesn’t mean that we have arrived.
Poto: This place never opened with a bang. I see this place like a steady hand since opening. We just grew every year to where we are today.
How many employees have been with you since day one?
Cimarusti: We put up a little tribute wall. All the people who have been here for 20 years. That’s seven people. Randi Dickerson has been our host for 20 years. Martin Luther Peoples III has been our captain manager for 20 years and Bobby Gannon our captain of 20 years. Many others 19, 18 years. Majority of the crew here is 10 years and older. I’m the one who gets all the credit, but it’s a huge team of people that contribute to the success of this restaurant. We have close to 30 people in the kitchen.
Our fish monger, five to six years ago he was learning how to cut fish. Now, he knows my standards. My eye. He tells me what to order. He makes the cold-smoked salmon that we serve. It’s one of the best smoked salmons I’ve ever had. Danielle Peterson, our sous-chef, created this incredible fermentation and koji making program. Tristan Aitchison has been cooking with me for 20 years here and before at Water Grill. He is my right-hand person who I have complete and utter faith in to run the restaurant exactly how I would run it. Mac Daniel Dimla, our whole chocolate program was his inspiration.
What was the first recognition you received at the restaurant that really made a difference?
Cimarusti: The stamp of validation that we got from Jonathan Gold for four years. His last list, we were number two after Vespertine. That meant a lot to me. Jonathan really put the restaurant on the map, starting with L.A. Weekly. The first time it got reviewed he was writing for them. I still have that review that he wrote. And then he started doing the 101 Best list and that was a real affirmation for what we are doing.
Echiverri: Michael was the Susan Lucci of the James Beard Awards. When he won that in 2019, it was a relief.
Poto: The recognition we got through the years, it changed a lot from when social media took over. I was like “oh my God” when Sherry Virbila from the L.A. Times came over and the first review she did. I remember that some restaurants would literally close after some reviews because they were the most important thing for the restaurant. Twenty years ago we couldn’t wait for things to be written and seen by people. It was the L.A. Times or a magazine.
After all this time, how do you measure success?
Cimarusti: In L.A. right now, if you can keep your doors open and meet payroll every two weeks, you’re doing well. The list of places that are going out of business is growing faster than the places opening. There is something going on in this city that I don’t know if anyone is able to put their finger on.
What do you think is happening?
Echiverri: The fires cast a shadow over the whole city for at least a good two months.
Cimarusti: The tumult downtown. People stopped traveling. Our reservation books in 2024, any given day you look at our books and 30% to 40% of the people dining were coming from outside of L.A. and many from outside of the country. The first quarter of this year, it was just not the case. People are not traveling. You can’t blame them because of the news coming out of the U.S. and the news coming out of L.A.
What do you think is behind the restaurant’s success?
Cimarusti: The one true constant here has always been people have gotten the result of our best efforts. Never about complacency. I know from myself standing at the pass that every dish that passes through my hands passed the same muster. It’s either good enough or it isn’t. Either meets the moment and it’s right on its way to the dining room or it’s not and if it’s not then it doesn’t go out. That’s not going to change.
The restaurant has always been known for a certain level of hospitality. Talk about why that’s important and how you’re able to maintain that?
Poto: We do an average of 70 to 75 guests max every day. We have more than 60 people working here between prep in the morning all the way to the dishwasher that closes the restaurant. Almost one employee to one guest ratio. This permits us to do all those fun things that other restaurants cannot do. We could have been much richer and said let’s make a business out of this.
We don’t look at it this way. We could charge more, but we don’t. And we write everything down. We try to have some general information and then we find out who people are. We aren’t trying to trespass their privacy, just anything that is related to something that we can do to surprise the guest in a good way or in a fun way. So they will say ‘how do you remember 10 years ago we had this thing?’ If they like a room, when you come in, we will take you automatically to that table.
Cimarusti: You can take food and hospitality very seriously, but don’t take yourselves too seriously. We want you to be comfortable. Enjoy, relax and let us take care of you.
What are some examples of things you do to enhance the guest experience, that might not be the most economically favorable for the restaurant?
Cimarusti: The garden is not a moneymaking endeavor. We put it up there for the very best quality so we can pick things exactly when they are ready and not before. We made the decision because usually when buying herbs and flowers, they come in plastic clam shells, so this eliminates all that. It costs us money. Or making our own chocolate. The prices have skyrocketed even at the very high prices they are right now, the fact that we are making it probably costs three to four times more than if we just bought the best chocolate on the market. We do it because it’s distinctive. It’s delicious. Our bread. The pastry chef mills the flour for the bread on a daily basis.
Poto: Even the honey. We don’t sell it. We use it and give it to guests. We have around 200,000 bees.
Cimarusti: We maintain our hives up there and that’s not cheap either, but it’s a point of pride for us.
Are there specific instances you remember when you went above and beyond to improve a guest’s experience?
Echiverri: We cooked a full tasting menu and delivered it to a private jet before it left for Europe.
Cimarusti: We do anything we can. One time we made baked Alaska because the guest had seen us make it for someone else and when we walked it out to her, she broke down in tears because she remembered going out with her father and he would order it.
Cimarusti: There was that one kid who you brought in and I saw him leave with a chef’s jacket.
Poto: Oh, it’s like $100 for the jacket. Who cares? He was so happy.
What was it like to finally get the three Michelin star recognition? And how has it impacted the business?
Poto: The magic of the third star. One of the biggest differences I have noticed from the week before and after the third star are that people are staying longer here. I notice the guest behavior, that they feel more proud and happier being here with the third star. We also didn’t add any tables. We were full before and on Friday and Saturday always had a wait list of 10 to 15 people. Maybe more on Saturdays. Since the star, we have a wait list five days a week and it goes from 20 to 30 people on a Tuesday to 87 people on a Saturday night. We open the reservations two months ahead and we pretty much have a two-month waiting list.
What’s the next goal after three Michelin stars?
Cimarusti: People often say you want to eat in a two star restaurant that’s trying to get a third star because they are doing more. Once you get the third star, the idea is to not plateau and to continue the evolution.
Echiverri: You can’t believe your own hype when there can be inertia. You have to figure out what’s not working and how to make it work and change it to make it better.
Cimarusti: Before, we were looking at how we could be one of the top 10 restaurants in this city. And then every year we pushed harder and harder and then we started to look elsewhere. How can we get as good as the best places in San Francisco? New York? As we were getting awards we started to say ‘OK, if we reach this level, what else should we look at?’ Your menu gets more creative. Slowly, we reached a point where we wanted to be as good as the top restaurants in the world. And we’re pushing even more.
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