Vartan Abgaryan to open outdoor-only Post Script restaurant in Venice

Vartan Abgaryan, chef-owner of Yours Truly in Venice, is opening an outdoor-only restaurant called Post Script. He plans to open the restaurant in the lot next to the Brig bar across the street from Yours Truly in September.

“We just had to be creative about what we’re doing,” Abgaryan said. The former 71Above chef temporarily closed Yours Truly during the pandemic. He looked to the parking lot adjacent to the Brig, co-owned by his partner David Reiss, for a solution.

“Financially it wouldn’t make sense to just do sidewalk seating at Yours Truly,” he said. “Doing this across the street works.”

Abgaryan said he wants Post Script to feel like a backyard dinner party. The menu will feature a grilled peach and tomato salad with halloumi; a wedge salad with bacon that’s been braised in maple syrup then grilled; grilled prawns with lettuce and yuzu kosho bagna cauda; grilled octopus tacos; grilled duck breast baos and a burger.

For dessert: banana splits, frozen strawberry pretzel pie and build-your-own s’mores.

“It’s a very open and random concept, so there is not this idea of the food has to be this or can’t be that,” he said.

The plan is to do all the production in the morning at Yours Truly, then move the food to a food truck he’ll use as a kitchen for the new restaurant. There will also be a large wood-burning grill.

The space will seat around 100 and will be outfitted with a newly painted floor, greenery and hanging lights under a large tent.

As for the Post Script name, it’s what he had planned to call a Yours Truly spinoff if he ever opened one on the Eastside.

Abgaryan added that he plans to start outdoor seating at Yours Truly after he gets Post Script up and running.

1515 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, instagram/postscript_LA

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.