Each month we share five unmissable things to see and do in the Golden State. You heard it here first.
Words by KELSEY McKINNON, DAVID NASH, and ELIZABETH VARNELL
SAN FRANCISCO
This New Mexican Restaurant Is a Love Letter to the Pacific Coast
If the first culinary ventures from Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz — Noosh, Istanbul Modern, and the lauded Eastern Mediterranean–influenced Dalida inside S.F.’s Presidio Park— resemble Sayat’s Turkish heritage, the power couple’s newest addition to the family, MARIA ISABEL, definitely takes after Laura’s mother in more than just its name. The intimate 50-seat restaurant is a love letter to the Pacific coasts of Mexico — where Laura was born in Guerrero — and California. Dishes such as aguachiles, ceviches, duck confit enchiladas, and rockfish pescadillas are served family-style on plates from Hacha Céramica in Jalisco and stoneware from Oakland-based Sarah Kersten Studio. The restaurant also boasts a serious masa program, nixtamalizing local corn and heirloom corn from Mexico in-house to make fresh tortillas. The space, designed by Jenne Wicht of JAK W, is equally transportive, featuring a lush botanical mural hand-painted by Emily Parkinson and playful pink-and-green terrazzo floors. Yes, there are margaritas, but adventurous drinkers may try the Ser un Sol, a bright, carbonated cocktail made with pox, a ceremonial Mayan spirit infused with whole cacao beans and lifted with clarified guava, marigold, and chamomile amaro. Salud! 500 Presidio Ave., S.F., 415-275-0075; mariaisabelsf.com. K.M.
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CARPINTERIA
A Well of Outdoor Living Inspiration Springs Up
Having inspired design aficionados and tastemakers since 1996, Shane Brown’s Culver City–based Big Daddy’s Antiques has reinvented itself 80 miles up the coast in Carpinteria as THE WELL GARDENS, a nine-acre property that offers an incredibly immersive, wholly unique curation of antiques and furnishings as well as new emphasis on botanicals and outdoor living. The space, which is located across from the Santa Barbara Polo Fields, opens April 18. More than two acres serve as a greenhouse space with winding pathways, olive trees, historic oaks dripping with lanterns, water features carved from limestone, and a serene pond. The updated concept also acts as the nursery for The Well family (of The Well in Summerland) while maintaining its reputation as a creative hub for design. “As [our] roots expand along the California coast, the mission remains unchanged,” Brown says. “To design a living, timeless story with a palette of historic antiques binding human experience with botanical life.” 3376 Foothill Rd., Carpinteria; thewellbydbantiques.com. D.N.
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LOS ANGELES
JR Turns His Inimitable Lens on California and the West
As art curator and writer Andria Hickey explains, “The horizon cannot be reached or possessed; it recedes as we approach and is a boundary that invites encounter.” This astute realization underscores French photographer and street artist JR’s first solo exhibition, aptly titled Horizons at PERROTIN LOS ANGELES. Created across California, from San Francisco and Tehachapi to Los Angeles and the U.S.–Mexico border near Tecate, the show highlights his regular return to these places and the large-scale photographic interventions he installs among their varied landscapes. Each built environment, including Kikito (his 2017 project at the border wall, where he installed a giant image of a toddler peeking curiously over the dividing line), becomes a place of empathy and understanding. With images from other series, like The Wrinkles of the City, Los Angeles – Jim Budman, Venice – USA (2011), the expressions on superimposed faces reveal the character of L.A.’s elderly community on its skyline. Also on display, pieces documenting the artist’s venture facilitated within Tehachapi, the California Correctional Institution, where he took inmates’ portraits and installed them in the prison’s basketball courtyard as a way for them to see one another from a different perspective. Through April 25. 5036 W. Pico Blvd., L.A.; perrotin.com. D.N.
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BEVERLY HILLS
The Silent Film Star’s Home That Came Back as an Enchanting Hotel
“Los Angeles is full of hidden gems that make up the city’s one-of-a-kind heritage, and this is certainly one of them,” Palisociety founder Avi Brosh says about THE HÔTEL LILI, a re-envisioned and intimate hotel from the boutique hospitality brand — and its first in Beverly Hills. Originally built in 1939 as a private residential apartment building for film star Lillian Gish, the totally updated three-story property has 44 meticulously outfitted suites, king, and deluxe king rooms that reflect the building’s old-world glamour while embracing Brosh’s recognizable styling and palette. Custom furnishings, Bellino linens, Diptyque bath amenities, curated minibars, dramatic draperies, wallpapered ceilings, and hues of soft white and pale gray alongside warm oranges and mustards are used in unconventional ways. Check out The Bar, a cozy, hidden watering hole within the hotel that offers small bites, cocktails, wine, and beer. 140 S. Lasky Dr., Beverly Hills; palisociety.com. D.N.
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SAN FRANCISCO
Calling All Fans of Collectable Fashion and Vintage Treasures
THE REAL REAL’s reimagined flagship boutique designed for consigning and shopping on one of San Francisco’s most hallowed retail corridors has reopened. The two-story space devoted to expert-authenticated resale is a one-stop shop for ’90s minimalist designs, ’80s maximalist patterns, aughts streetwear, It Bags from all the houses Tom Ford helmed, heritage brands, and much more. You’ll find women’s and men’s ready-to-wear alongside fine jewelry and watches with expanded areas for consigner appointments and private showings. The reworked space is another homecoming of sorts for the S.F.-based president and CEO, Rati Sahi Levesque, who once ran a clothing boutique in Russian Hill with a couple of racks of consignment before becoming the publicly traded company’s first employee. She says circularity is the key to modern retail, and the online marketplace’s 17th bricks-and-mortar store is meant to be a gathering place for the sustainably minded, the hyper-focused fashionista, and the casual browser alike, offering Painted Leopard coffee to those combing the racks on weekends. 253 Post St., S.F., 415-554-3700; therealreal.com/sf. E.V.
April 2026
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