Embrace Biophilia At This Vegan Eatery In Brentwood

To experience the ICrave–PLANTA playbook in a different key from their PLANTA Cocina location, head some 10 miles northeast of Marina del Rey to the site of their latest collaboration for the company’s single-name sub-brand. PLANTA Brentwood caters to a slightly hippie, see-and-be-seen crowd. That’s why creative director Greg Merkel and team found the storefront location on San Vicente Boulevard—the casually tony neighborhood’s main thoroughfare—ideal. Though small at just 2,400 square feet, with seating for 112 inside and 20 on the sidewalk, the space had the right bones. “Amazing wooden rafters!” Merkel notes, before mentioning the skylight and all-glass street facade. The latter was partially boarded over, but as the designer predicted, the timber panels were easily removed, making the place “woody, airy, and light throughout, with all the right vibes.” The only structural intervention required was conjoining the building to a small space next door. This was a clear case of doing less is more.

Still, ICrave adhered to established planning tenets. There’s a central bar and a semiprivate dining area enclosed by a banquette, its back crowned with a beadwork screen. A similar screen forms the bar back, separating café-style seating at the front of house from more formal table-and-booth dining in the rear. Special treatments nod to biophilia or feature artisan-inspired detailing. Porcelain tile cladding the floor and billboard-scale logo wall outside suggest oversize terrazzo, while blown-glass pendant fixtures also serve as aerial planters. And a lacy wall medallion, comprising layers of CNC-machined wood panels, is something of a Rorschach test: See it as a mandala or a veiny leaf. Either way, it connotes life.

Inside The Cozy PLANTA Brentwood By ICrave

FROM FRONT FIRECLAY TILE: BAR-FRONT TILE. SUITE 22: CHAIRS (BAR, SIDEWALK). CERAMICA PARLA: STOOLS (BAR), CHAIRS (DINING AREA). LESLIE ANN WIGON ART & DESIGN: CUSTOM BEADWORK (BANQUETTE AREA). CARNEGIE: WALLCOVERING. KLDN: PENDANT FIXTURES. ALLIED MAKER: SCONCE. THROUGHOUT SIMPLY TABLES: CUSTOM TABLES. SANT’AGOSTINO: TILE.