Historic Church Becomes L.A.’s Hottest New Restaurant: Sous Sous SILVER LAKE

Cross-posted. Reservation for 12. Currently 10 going on the cross-post. We are extremely lucky to get a reservation. Since its opening a few weeks ago Sous Sous has been booked consistently at full capacity.

Please join the waitlist when full. If there’s a minimum of 4 waitlisted we will use our overflow reservation for 7 PM. The first 12 guests confirmed are for the 6:15 PM seating.

BRINGING YOU LA’S H O T T E S T NEW VENUE REPURPOSED INTO A GLAMOROUS RESTAURANT
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

These historical places are what I’m most passionate about. I’m an advocate for preservation. It’s simply extraordinary what they have done with this space.

95-year-old LA church gets new life as 25-room boutique hotel & restaurant.

Take a look 👁️
If you don’t have Instagram (best two videos) watch the YouTube one until the end. It will WOW you!!!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dc9J7XtvhX7/?stkn=am9kMjlsNzhtcjY=

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdcOXUdSUQJ/?stkn=MWRkdTRqNTJzdGN0YQ==

https://youtube.com/shorts/xY0nQUPvJG4?si=WxuOqGkCr5qnT4j-

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcwYciYvi8V/?stkn=MTJudzFqdGp5bGFsYQ==

Please kindly confirm your commitment to attend by making your $5 RSVP immediately. Event is two weeks out. You will be replaced otherwise. See payment info below. Thank you!

HOW A 1931 CHURCH BECAME SILVER LAKE’S GLAMOROUS NEW BOUTIQUE HOTEL
A 1931 Silver Lake church has been reborn as Hotel Lucile, a 25-room boutique property with a restaurant and bar in the former sanctuary, preserving stained glass and a rooftop cross.
After years of neighborhood debate, city hearings and a bankruptcy, Casetta Group took over the project.

There’s a cross on the roof, stained glass in the windows and a choir loft upstairs, but this whitewashed three-level building near Sunset Blvd in Silver Lake is no longer a house of worship. It’s the HOTEL LUCILE which just opened last week- Sept. 14 with a restaurant and bar in the high-ceilinged sanctuary where churchgoers once gathered. This opening follows more than a decade of controversy and transformation, including a community debate, bankruptcy and the arrivsal of a new hotelier in 2020.

The new hotelier is Los Angeles-based CASSETA GROUP which specializes in adapting older structures and has six properties in California and New Mexico, including the Surfrider Hotel in Malibu and Casa Cody in Palm Springs.

When guests arrive at Hotel Lucile, they will find many reminders that the building was constructed as Bethany Presbyterian Church in 1931. But those guests will also see plenty of updates, including 25 guest rooms in the space that once held a church school; a small pool (about 15 feet square); and a rotating display of more than 100 contemporary artworks (many for sale). The organ loft is now a meeting space. The choir loft is retooled as a zone for coffee and drinks. The rooftop (reserved only for hotel guests) is a lounge with downtown views.

After serving as a church for most of the 20th century under varying names, the building was informally adapted for multiple uses, including spells as an antique shop, filming location and the backdrop for interactive horror theater experience “Delusion.”

The building has lived several lives, and now stands as a pillar of revitalized beauty and a new gathering place.

This church-to-commerce transition isn’t entirely unique. Across the city and the country, declining attendance has idled many religious buildings, often leading to conversions. I personally have been to a few of these repurposed former places of worship. I went out to view Hotel Lucile before posting this event.

Hotel Lucile is by far one of the most remarkable repurposed religious buildings I’ve been to in Southern California. AN ABSOLUTE MUST SEE!!!

Hotel Lucile begins a new chapter, retaining interior arches, masonry, woodwork details and a rooftop cross that the hotel will keep alight at night. (The old church bell, however, will remain silent.) “We did preserve as much as we could of the original beams and stained glass,” said Laney Langenstein, who oversees strategy and marketing for Casetta. Though guest rooms have minibars (curated by Erewhon and other partners), Langenstein noted that hotel staffers will also push a martini cart that will “go through the hallways and see if anybody thinks it’s cocktail hour.”

DINING
Run by the team behind De La Nonna, Sous Sous is the main restaurant for Hotel Lucile. The restaurant sits in what was formerly the church's chapel, complete with a marble bar where the pipe organs used to be. Sous Sous' draws upon cooking traditions of southern France and the American South, which means dishes like polenta-crusted rainbow trout, bouillabaisse for two, and sazeracs with toasted coconut rims.

As of now Sous Sous only serves dinner. A hotel cafe will be open to guests for breakfast and lunch in the near future. They will introduce Happy Hour and occasional live music on the room’s stage.

MENU
Their menu on their website does not have prices but someone who recently went uploaded a photo of their menu which includes pricing. See last photo in the photo gallery.

HOTEL
The new look of the hotel was produced by Casetta Hotels and design firm Electric Bowery. Of 25 rooms, 24 have a single king bed and one has two queens. Most rooms have showers, not tubs. There is one suite, which has its own courtyard patio and fountain.

With an eye to potential expansion later, hotel management has also bought up one of the three immediately neighboring properties.

RESERVE YOUR DINING SPOT
$5 RSVP PayPal, Venmo or Zelle (NOT if waitlisted). NOTE: Fee is NOT refundable or transferable. If you need to cancel immediately update to “not going.”

Payment contact provided at time of RSVP made immediately or spot will be released so someone else can join.

AT TIME OF PAYMENT INDICATE: Sous Sous

NOTIFICATIONS-ON ARE REQUIRED
It is YOUR responsibility to know if you were moved-up from the waitlist.

PARKING
Valet $15 or street parking.
The church is located in a residential neighborhood. Give yourself plenty of time to find street parking. Space is very limited and may require walking a block or two.

MEETUP POLICY
🔺No drop-ins. RSVP Meetup members only
🔺 3 under 24-hr cancellations/6-months out
🔺 3 failures to pay (fee events)/6-months out
🔺 2 no-shows/perm. removed 🔺 Excessive cancellations perm. removed