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High-End Vietnamese Restaurant Moves Into Historic Formosa Cafe
Photo courtesy of Red Medicine
Red Medicine, the high-concept Vietnamese restaurant known for Jordan Kahn's inventive cooking and painterly plating, will be bringing their spin to the Formosa Cafe in West Hollywood.
Originally opened in 1925 in a Red Car trolley, the Santa Monica Boulevard restaurant became the Formosa Café in 1939. Now Adam Flieshman of the Umami fame and his partners Kahn and Noah Ellis (also the GM at the original Red Medicine) will come in to breathe new life into the space. They're going to call the project Red Med at Formosa Café, and the menu will focus on simpler-sounding items like dumplings, spring rolls, and banh-mi.
This falls right into line with Fleishman's MO; he has revamped spaces in Downtown L.A. and the old Papoo's Hot Dog Show, among others.
The iconic Formosa Cafe has seen the likes of many movie stars over the years, including Clark Gable to Judy Garland to Marlon Brando to Jodie Foster. It's said that many Hollywood couples have sparked their romance their too, like Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner and Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner.
The Formosa Café will be open for dinner at 4 p.m. and serving late night until 2 a.m., and there'll be free parking available in the West Hollywood Gateway parking garage.
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