Adam Weisblatt and Holly Fox can finally see their first restaurant from the outside, a rare vantage point for two people who have built their careers on los angeles restaurant design. Sitting in a back booth of the new dining room they added to Found Oyster, the couple describe the moment as close to an out-of-body experience. “When we opened this new room, and I was looking at Found Oyster from a perspective I physically had never been able to see it from before, it was wildly emotional,” Fox says, sunlight catching her gold hoop earrings.
The original Found Oyster opened in 2019 in a narrow shopfront on Fountain Avenue in East Hollywood. It is a 26-seat room with checkered tile, custom oyster stands and a glittering disco ball. Multi-skilled bartenders mix drinks and shuck oysters at the same wooden bar. The space proved so popular that the team could expand into the neighboring room, which roughly doubled the restaurant’s footprint.
Weisblatt says the small size was partly a matter of money. “We didn’t think we could raise the money to build a big restaurant,” he says. He also believes a compact room makes it easier to generate the energy they wanted. Their current menu leans on Sicilian crudo, fried calamari and squid stuffed with tuna ‘nduja.
Compact rooms can hold a lot of atmosphere, as a Manhattan bar proves in a cocktail room built around steel blue USM furniture with omakase-style drinks.
From one raw bar to a small group of restaurants
The couple ran a consultancy called Last Word Hospitality for five years before they opened Found Oyster. The company now runs a group of restaurants across Los Angeles. Barra Santos, a Portuguese tapas bar in Cypress Park, sits alongside Queen’s, a raw bar in Highland Park. Rasarumah, a Malaysian-inspired restaurant, operates in Historic Filipinotown. The newest opening, Hermon’s in Montecito Heights, serves martinis and cheeseburgers in a classic bistro setting.
The group has also worked with Matt and Mike French, the owners of the Pioneertown Motel, on two projects near Joshua Tree. Red Dog is an Old West saloon near Joshua Tree. The Copper Room, a Rat Pack-era jetset lounge in Yucca Valley, is the other. A third desert project, a revival of the historic Lord Fletcher Inn in Rancho Mirage, is scheduled to open this spring.
Each venue has a distinct personality, yet all of them share a relaxed, sociable tone. Weisblatt rejects the idea of a restaurant as a “concept.” Instead, he says, the team starts with a familiar format, such as a bistro, a pub or an oyster bar, and then fills it with the personalities of the people running it. “Then we put human personality into it rather than it being an act,” he says.
Both founders came up through the restaurant business, and Weisblatt has written about the experience. His memoir, For The Love of Restaurants, covers the opening of Found Oyster with unvarnished detail. It also works as a practical guide for anyone who wants to move from waiting tables or bartending to running a place of their own. “It’s aimed at someone waiting tables or bartending,” he says. “If that’s all the education you have, it explains what you’re going to need to open your own place.”
Los Angeles restaurant design that looks like it has always been there
Last Word’s approach to los angeles restaurant design starts with a simple goal: make each restaurant feel old. At The Copper Room, the team restored a storied bar with a panoramic view across the Yucca Valley airstrip. At Hermon’s, which had never been a restaurant, the team built a sense of worn elegance using caramel-tiled bars and classic leather booths. Weisblatt says trends are the enemy of good restaurant design. “Whatever is new won’t stay new for long,” he says. “Whatever is timeless will stay timeless.”
Designs that avoid chasing trends often age best, and Skywalker Grill: Midcentury Meets Futurism at Lucas Museum shows how a dining room can borrow from several eras at once.
Intimacy is the other thread in the group’s los angeles restaurant design. Found Oyster packed its guests tightly into a small room because it had no other choice. That closeness became part of its appeal, and the team has kept it as the restaurants have grown. Hermon’s is the largest of the group by square footage, which led Fox to ask a pointed question: how do you make a large room feel small? Her answer is to bring people closer together. She admits she often overrules architects who draw oversized tables, wide walkways or banquettes that look good on a floor plan but work against the room.
The team says food depends on two things: where the ingredients come from and who cooks them. Produce comes from independent suppliers and small farms. Chefs including Ari Kolender at Found Oyster and Johnny Lee at Rasarumah have been given ownership stakes and room to experiment. Weisblatt says the team does not limit creativity, but it watches costs closely. Once a restaurant’s check climbs past a certain level, he argues, diners expect formality, and that is not the experience Last Word wants to offer.
Not every project has worked. In 2021, while the group was also developing The Copper Room, Barra Santos and Queen’s Raw Bar, it opened Shins Pizza in Cypress Park. That restaurant closed at the start of 2025. Weisblatt says the team learned that quick-service food is not its strength, and that its los angeles restaurant design shines in places built for lingering. Small price changes also proved harder than expected. A slice of cheese rising from $3.50 to $4 turned out to matter a great deal to customers. The lesson, he says, is that the group does best with independent, full-service restaurants where people want to spend an evening.
Last Word has more expansion plans, but the team does not intend to build a chain of Found Oyster locations. Weisblatt’s argument is that independent restaurants give a neighborhood its character. He points to the alternative of long highway stretches lined with the same fast-food brands, and he says the country’s best version of itself is still found in independent diners. The group’s restaurants succeed for the same reason: a diner who sits down at Found, Hermon’s or The Copper Room knows exactly where they are.
Via wallpaper.com
Frequently asked questions
What is Last Word Hospitality’s approach to restaurant design?
Last Word Hospitality aims to make each restaurant feel old, as if it has always been there. The founders believe trends are the enemy of good design, because whatever is new won’t stay new for long.
How many seats does the original Found Oyster have?
The original Found Oyster is a 26-seat room in a narrow shopfront on Fountain Avenue in East Hollywood, which opened in 2019. The team later expanded into the neighboring room, roughly doubling the restaurant’s footprint.
Who founded Last Word Hospitality and what did they do before?
Adam Weisblatt and Holly Fox founded Last Word Hospitality. They ran it as a consultancy for five years before they opened Found Oyster.
Which restaurants does Last Word Hospitality run in Los Angeles?
The group runs Barra Santos, a Portuguese tapas bar in Cypress Park, Queen’s, a raw bar in Highland Park, and Rasarumah, a Malaysian-inspired restaurant in Historic Filipinotown. Its newest opening is Hermon’s in Montecito Heights, which serves martinis and cheeseburgers in a classic bistro setting.
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