The new folks behind Freedmanโ€™s are asking themselves some compelling questions:

What does a neighborhood bistro look like, for Silver Lake?

How can a restaurant become your new favorite wine bar?

Andโ€”this is the one they ask most passionatelyโ€”how can they get a bottle of wine on every single table. Wait, better yet, a whole-ass magnum?

The answers that chef Ryan Costanza and general manager/beverage director Matt Bone have come up with are beginning to spark some fun changes. The Silver Lake strip mall joint started off with a lot of ambitions alreadyโ€”its nouveau-Jewish deli cuisine made Bon Appetitโ€™s Hot 10 Restaurant List in 2018, spearheaded by young sibling-owners Jonah and Amanda Freedman, who found a creative niche riffing on Jewish classics in a town with an abundance of tradition to cull from. At the beginning, they recruited Bon Appetit wine editor and Silver Lake local Marissa Ross to curate their wine list, honing a philosophy that centered bottle affordability in the spirit of vin-to-table.

a portrait of Ryan Costanza, Jonah Freedman and Matt Bone
From left: Ryan Costanza, Jonah Freedman and Matt Bone. Photo by David Morrison.

Now with Bone at the helm, โ€œher concepts definitely live on,โ€ he says, but theyโ€™ve tweaked their approach after a couple of years in the neighborhood. Bone, a chipper new dad who arrived at Freedmanโ€™s after working for chef Brian Dunsmoor at Hatchet Hall, has big goals of making Freedmanโ€™s the new kickback spot for natural wine drinkers in townโ€”even if theyโ€™re not doing dinner. Bone and Costanza have been collaborating on this vision together, which looks like a way to make Freedmanโ€™s into the likes of an all-night hang spot, from dinner date to nightcap. Theyโ€™ve noticed since broadening their by-the-glass list and increasingly educating their staff on the wines, theyโ€™ve gotten closer to that goal of wine on every table. While they still pursue Rossโ€™s vision of accessible sub-$60 bottles, their tweaked approach has made a good impact on business. โ€œItโ€™s been easier to get, like, people on Tinder dates to come in and have a couple glasses,โ€ Costanzaโ€™s observed.

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โ€œIโ€™m so excited by the idea of a bar where people drink bottles of wine,โ€ Bone says. โ€œI donโ€™t know that place. Ordinaire in Oakland, maybe? Thatโ€™s what wakes me up in the morning. I want it to be normal to meet up and just crack a bottle of wine, sit down, and just chat.โ€ Fortunately for Bone, who joined Freedmanโ€™s earlier this year, a lot about the space already works in the favor of his restaurant-as-wine-bar vision. A contrast to all that is breezy and IKEA-wood-and-white about contemporary LA dining, Freedmanโ€™s is a cozy cave, grandma-luxe with leather banquets and baroque wallpaper best for holing up after dark. Amazingly (this is Los Angeles, the city that often sleeps), itโ€™s open until 2:00am on weekends.

What else works is that Freedmanโ€™s oft-rotating wine list focuses on smaller producers who are genuinely affordable. Plus, even if you canโ€™t polish off the bottle you ordered for whatever reason, youโ€™re able to take the rest home with you. These are specific choices that help Bone facilitate the casual and affordable drinking atmosphere he wants to see in the world, or at least, in Silver Lake.

โ€œThere are some of the best natural wine destinations within earshot,โ€ Bone says. Itโ€™s true; theyโ€™re just a tumble down Sunset Boulevard from several of LAโ€™s most exciting places to drink wine. But itโ€™s extremely worth noting that Freedmanโ€™s glasses tend to clock in at $13 and under, and a handful of delicious bottles land in the $40 and under range, rendering Freedmanโ€™s one of the more, shall we say, safe spaces to show up at night wanting to try a bunch of stuff just for fun. In Boneโ€™s vision of โ€œde-preciousizingโ€ natural wine (which certainly picks up from Rossโ€™s influence), this affordable curation is where the walk meets the talk. โ€œIn the end, I want this to feel like a neighborhood bar with a wine program,โ€ Bone says. โ€œWhen the people from Night+Market Song get off and come drink bottles here, I think that’s the end goal. I take that as the best compliment: when industry people end up drinking here.โ€

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Costanzaโ€™s been busy crafting a revamped menu that maintains a couple of classicsโ€”the waffle-iron latke, the glorious glazed brisketโ€”but adapts the Jewish deli influence into subtler, more Parisian bistro shapes. He notes the proliferation of Israeli cuisine throughout the city (most of which are knockouts, like Mh Zh, Dune, Kismet, and Bavel), and points to Freedmanโ€™s instead looking to Ashkenazi influences which have deep roots in Los Angeles, but with less contemporary adaptations. As Freedmanโ€™s evolves and continues to ask itself questions about what it can become, it shows a commitment to staying close to its roots. It all started just a few years ago, with Jewish traditions and low-impact wines. Those beginnings seem as fertile ground as any for an exciting, continuing conversation about how and where we drink good wine. And that conversation is one that ideally unfolds over a magnum, plopped in the middle of a table, surrounded by friends.

Freedman’s is located at 2619 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles. Visit their official website and follow them on Instagram.

Top photo by Dylan + Jeni.ย