Chaya Venice Is Now An Isn'tkaya

It was only about six months ago that Chaya Venice rebranded itself as a Modern Izakaya in an attempt to reinvent itself and increase business. Unfortunately, the attempt failed and, as I passed by Friday evening, the place was totally empty and, curious, I looked in at the door and saw a notice stating that, as of that day, it was permanently closing. While I never made it in to the reinvented Chaya, and there are certainly plenty of better and more authentic izakayas in L.A., I have pleasant memories of meals in Chaya’s prior incarnation (and former sister locations) and am sorry to see it close.

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Oh… I have so many fond (fuzzy) memories of late nights at Chaya. “Pass the tuna tartare, please!”

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They destroyed it with the remodel and reconfiguration of the menu.

It’s very sad it’s closed, I always loved it, and went often. Was last there a couple weeks ago, and I guess I had my last lychee martini.

I’d forgotten about those lychee martinis, they were wicked good. Natalee Thai makes lychee martinis, but the quality depends on the bartender du jour.

Any intel on what’s happening in the Chaya Venice space? I just noticed this morning that the windows are covered up with Spacecraft Design signage.

The rumor is that it’s being taken over by the Forma team.

I love Forma, eat there a couple times a month. Always excellent (and they have a fantastic happy hour).