In Los Angeles, foodie culture usually swims upstream from real estate, so when chef Travis Lett decided earlier this year to sell his stake in Venice restaurants Gjelina, Gjusta and MTN to pursue a project in West Adams, it felt like a page had turned in the city's history.
The 2008 opening of Gjelina helped reshape the beachside community, and Lett's departure to reopen the Johnny's Pastrami on West Adams Boulevard has warmed the hearts of locals while leaving Venetians feeling like yesterday's news. "We're not going to be Abbot Kinney in a year or two — that's going to take a while longer," says Claire Lissone, founder of the Real Estate Collective, which focuses on West Adams, the 1.5-square-mile neighborhood in South L.A.
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