The French Laundry Alum Tim Hollingsworth Opens Otium at Broad Museum

Fiona Chandra

Chef Timothy Hollingsworth, once chef de cuisine at iconic The French Laundry, has been planning to open a restaurant with L.A.’s prolific restaurateur Bill Chait for a while. That restaurant is finally realized in a gorgeous space next to The Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles. Sitting on top of a bridge on Hope St, the dining room boasts a view of downtown’s Bunker Hill on one side and the Museum on the other. Most things in the restaurant are made by local artisans, from the chairs (Chris Earl) to the tiles (Heath Ceramics) to the aprons (Hedley & Bennett). The interior design is worthy of a restaurant that is partnering with The Broad.   

Otium is Chef Hollingsworth’s first solo venture and features New American cuisine meant to please everyone from local workers to museum visitors. The name Otium comes from a Latin term meaning leisure time. Thus, he’s combining his culinary training at fine dining restaurants – 13 years at The French Laundry – with L.A.’s more casual dining scene. As a Texan and chef at Studio City’s BBQ restaurant, Barrel and Ashes, you will also find influences of barbecue in his dishes. Luxury ingredients typically found exclusively at fine dining restaurants will be served in a very approachable way. Lobster roll, bucatini with clams and bacon, and tri-tip kimchi fried rice are some dishes you can expect to see on the menu. While at brunch you may find funnel cakes topped with seared foie gras. Hollingsworth is using a lot of donabe, a Japanese pot made from clay, and you may find dishes like dobane-smoked Hamachi.

Otium is currently open for lunch and brunch with the exception of Mondays, on which day The Broad Museum is closed. Dinner service is slated to begin on December 8. Hollingsworth will also soon add a chef’s garden and cooking classes.