HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — It’s fitting that a studio where the Red Hot Chili Peppers once recorded is now a restaurant that pays tribute to its musical roots.
Grandmaster Recorders, which opened Thursday in the former Grandmaster Recordings building on Cahuenga Boulevard, is a tasty take on the many musicians who recorded in the 15,000-square-foot space with a full-service restaurant, cocktail bar and rooftop deck looking out on the Hollywood Hills.
“Grandmaster Recorders has history you just can’t manufacture,” said restaurant co-owner Grant Smillie, who has spent three years converting the space with his partner David Combes. “When you inherit a space that was home to icons the caliber of Bowie, Blondie, The Foo Fighters, Kanye West, Stevie Wonder and many more, it automatically evokes a sense of nostalgia and informs the way that you think of the place.”
With three distinct spaces on multiple levels, Grandmaster Recorders is an homage to its past with a vintage Grandmaster logo at its entrance, as well as a marquee ticker sign more common to music venues.
The 71 Studio Bar, named for the year the recording studio opened and featuring a former recording booth, is decked out with a disco ball, gold vinyl records and drum pedals. That theme extends to the cocktails themselves, where customers can order a newfangled vodka drink called the Cheap Trick or a Queens of the Old Fashioned.
A separate restaurant space, converted from a former warehouse, has 150 seats in an area that is industrial chic with red structural beams and exposed concrete setting off saddle green leather chairs and potted fiddle leaf figs.
Culinary Director Monty Koludrovic said the restaurant is taking a “new world” approach to Italian fare that is neither traditional nor fusion. Instead, it will offer American and Australian versions of Italian classics, including a seafood stew with Maine lobster and a sourdough cavatelli with lamb.
What is served will change with the seasons based on what’s being sold at the Hollywood Farmers Market.
A third space on the roof is serving its own menu of food and drinks until 2 a.m. from a 4,000-square-foot space with views of the Hollywood Hills.
Grandmaster Recorders is the latest musically-inspired creation of the Botanical Hospitality Group, which also runs the E.P. & L.P. restaurant and rooftop on Melrose.
Next spring, the group will open another Italian rooftop concept on Melrose called Blondie.