Olivia Lopez is hosting your date night.
Plus a new real estate publication, Brad Pitt's break-in, and a big Hollywood real estate buy.
Happy Friday, everyone. Before you ask, I won’t be discussing the wedding currently happening in Venice. I’m finally seeing Materialists tonight, and I’m really hoping I’m one of those people who’s like…I actually really liked it?
If you have hot tips or east side events you want me to share, DM me on Instagram.
Olivia Lopez is hosting your date night…and everything else.
If you’ve strolled Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake over the past year, you’ve likely encountered a mass of (abnormally chic) bodies crowding the sidewalk outside Seco. Modeled after the sidewalk-centric, come-and-stay-a-while approach of European wine bars, Seco was an instant hit upon its debut last August — and remains so almost a full year later.
The brainchild of multidisciplinary creative Olivia Lopez, in partnership with the Santo team, Seco has become a go-to third space for LA cool kids (and kids who want to be cool). The restaurant’s glowing red orb lights draw the east side cognoscenti like moths to a flame, and the natural wine selection, high-impact bites, and top-tier people watching keeps them coming back again and again.
Ahead of Seco’s upcoming one-year anniversary, I talked to Olivia — who’s also the founder of the creative studio Bon Weekender, the host of The Art of Travel podcast, and the writer of The Dossier here on Substack — about its inception, runaway success, and plans for expansion moving forward.
You wear a lot of hats, professionally speaking. Walk me through how you got started.
I’ve had an unconventional career path, just because I started a blog when I was in high school. I had just moved from LA to the Orange County suburbs, and I felt this huge culture void. I kind of turned my BlogSpot into a place I could just share photography from my weekends out with friends, from music festivals, that type of thing. Pretty early on, it caught the attention of a lot of brands. I was asked to write for Teen Vogue and Seventeen as their teen contributor, and it became more and more polished the more I did it. At the time, there was no way to know if this was something that could continue, so when an invitation to go to New Zealand or Tokyo with Vogue Japan came in, my mindset was like, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I took a semester off [from college], which really launched me into this whole creative world. And then in my early twenties I got really obsessed with architecture, and that’s how I got into my creative studio. I found this specific gap for storytelling — I wanted to write stories about travel, but at the intersection of art and design. That’s really where I found my footing.
And then last year, you partnered with the Santo team to open Seco. How’d that come about?
That also came about organically. Jos, my business partner, was my front house neighbor. He and his wife came over to my house one morning and mentioned they’d taken over the lease for the space next door [to Santo]. Before I moved back to LA in 2022, I lived between New York and Paris, and I’d walk around Paris and Milan and fantasize about bringing that European style of bar culture back to the US. So when Jos came over, I asked him if he had a concept for the space. His wife kind of nudged him, like, “Oh, we talked about how your next project should have a feminine touch.” So Seco’s very much an aesthetic break from the Santo style — we call it the little sister, or the little cousin who studied abroad in Barcelona and had an artist boyfriend. It’s funny, though, it’s very girl-coded but I’ve been amazed by how many guys love to go. There’s flowers everywhere, it’s pink, but the guys and the girlies and the gays all love it.
You obviously came into it with a very clear creative vision, but did you anticipate how popular it was going to be?
No, no, not at all. Even to this day we’re spilling out to the sidewalk almost every day, and I really thought Seco was just going to be this chill, romantic date night wine bar. Every day I’m just like, how did this happen? So yeah, we’re just really happy that everyone loves it, and trying to figure out how to control the traffic on the sidewalk.
Everyone loves sidewalk culture, and there’s often not enough of it in LA.
Totally. And the craziest thing is — my partner and I say Seco is this weird manifestation vortex, because almost everything we discussed before opening has happened. I remember in one of our early meetings with PR, they were asking what the vision was, and I was like, “I want to turn this part of Sunset Junction into Dimes Square.” And one of the bars I revere, Bar Basso in Milan, is known for having enormous crowds that spill onto the sidewalk. Before we had a name for Seco, all of my placeholder file names were Bar Basso. And those two things could not have manifested more literally, because Seco is now known for its crowds of creative people.
Are there plans for expansion?
Yes. We’re not ready to announce yet, but yes.
As an LA native, what’s your take on the evolution of the east side?
I have complex feelings about this, because obviously operating an east side bar comes with its own unique web of east side problems. But I think it’s really cool. I started going to Sunset Junction when I was in high school. They used to have this alternative music festival called the Sunset Junction Festival, and it was a gay leather daddy festival. It was amazing. And there are still places that honor that history. It’s obviously become a lot more bougie bohemian, but the roots are still intact. There was a moment of a lot of chains coming in, but I think it’s actually coming back around to smaller businesses that are actually tailored to the community and the environment. I hope it keeps evolving in that direction.
Other than Seco, your top three east side spots are…
Zizou’s my top contender for a night out with friends. Carousel in Los Feliz for low key but lavish Lebanese spreads. And the Vermont Canyon tennis courts.
What’s worth going west of La Brea for?
Sunset Tower. Oh, and the new Gagosian.
In your opinion, the coolest east sider is…
Jason Stewart, who you’ve interviewed. Jason really encompasses the east side in the sense that you need to appreciate the high and low and all the subcultures. He can tell you where to get your artisanal bagel fix, and he also has amazing coverage of Armenian Glendale. The food subcultures, he just totally understands.
What current trend can you get behind?
Natural wine. It was always the anarchist winemaking style. You can’t really scale natural wine.
And what’s on its way out?
Cocktail bars, horoscopes, and not being funny.
🍽️ And now for some table scraps…
If you’re like me and celebrity real estate news is your drug of choice, you’ll be thrilled by this new publication. Back in the day, I loved Dirt.com. It was dishy, informative, and just invasive enough to be interesting. But then the founders sold to Penske Media, where it was integrated with Variety, became a watered-down version of itself, and ultimately folded last year. Now, however, the original Dirt.com team is back with a new indie publication, North Hillcrest, which feels very much like the original. I’m excited about it.
An Anaheim(!) favorite pops up in Echo Park. The James Beard-nominated tiki bar Strong Water will be taking over Thunderbolt from 5-9pm on 7/7. The $105 ticket price seems a little steep, but it includes five drinks, so…maybe worth it if you’re looking to get bombed on a Monday?
Brad Pitt’s Los Feliz house was ransacked by burglars Wednesday night. The front window got smashed and the place is a mess, but Brad wasn’t home at the time. His Frogtown holdings remain intact.
Gap needs to stop sending me emails, because I will buy. Their stuff is great recently. They have a cropped tee exactly like Abercrombie’s, but cheaper. The thing to remember about Gap: yes, it’s cheaper than most other retailers right now. But it stops being cheap if you buy six things!
La Azteca Tortilleria is closing its original Boyle Heights location. It’s been a neighborhood staple for more than 50 years, but its last day will be 7/14. Thankfully, its second location at Atlantic and Beverly will remain open.
Lisa Kudrow is returning for a third and final season of HBO’s The Comeback. Gay men everywhere (and a few women) will be thrilled by this news, a full eleven years after the release of season two.
The LAT thinks you should plan a summer trip to the Sacramento area.
America’s obsession with the tech bro is growing, and growing, and growing. Aaron Sorkin’s working on a sequel to 2010’s The Social Network. I don’t necessarily want this movie — it’ll, by nature, be a lot scarier than the first — but I do generally appreciate the idea of a sequel coming 15+ years after the original.
The cofounder of Tinder just bought $69mm worth of Hollywood real estate. Sean Mateen is now the proud owner of the historic Petersen Building and the Hollywood Galaxy shopping center on Hollywood Boulevard. Don’t sleep on Hollywood — it’s becoming a hotspot for companies looking for a cooler vibe than the office parks of the west side can provide. Besides Netflix’s megacampus, relative newcomers to Hollywood include SiriusXM and Skims. Now’s the time to buy.
Jonathan Anderson showed his first collection for Dior today. I’m generally anti-logo, but I’d frankly love one of these sweatshirts. The fit!
Finally, four homes for the price of one!! Anyone want to go in on this?
