Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson didn’t immediately hit it off while working together at Brooklyn Kitchen. It wasn’t until Kramer opened Glasserie in Greenpoint and Hymanson came in to check it out that the two chefs discovered they shared a similar culinary sensibility.
Hymanson, a Chicago native, was always into food, cooking since she was a young child, while Kramer, a former Broadway performer (she starred in Mamma Mia! when she 17), always had an interest in the quality of the food she was eating. Despite these backgrounds—or because of them—the chefs made a bold decision in 2013: They moved to Los Angeles to open a falafel shop and a restaurant without any funding or partners. That dream became a reality when local chefs and restaurateurs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo of Animal, Son of a Gun, and Jon & Vinny’s stepped in to help them launch Madcapra, a falafel counter in Grand Central Park in 2015, and more recently, the Middle Eastern-inspired Kismet in Los Feliz, which debuted this past January. Thanks to local designer Jeff Guga, the latter is dressed in blond wood and natural light with a minimalistic aesthetic that draws on Kramer and Hymanson’s ambitious menu of reinvented Middle Eastern fare rooted in its California locale.
Here, we caught up with Kramer who talks to us about those auspicious beginnings, her love of food, and Kismet’s community appeal.
The inviting Middle Eastern concept in the LA neighborhood of Los Feliz
What made you want to become a chef?
I was a performer when I was younger. Then at 20, I decided it wasn’t the right fit for me and never looked back. I grew up caring about food, how it related to health and the environment. I wanted to know where it came from, which is a big influence on why we source the way we do and why the menu is vegetable forward.
Why is the LA food scene so appealing?
It’s a little less developed and [more] raw than New York’s. People are excited and that was part of the motivation to come out here. There’s a lot of energy and we’re adding to the landscape.
The sundrenched interior of Kismet is wrapped with blond wood
How did your collaboration with Shook and Dotolo come about?
We always wanted two places. Madcapra at Grand Central Market is small and where we learned how business works. We met the Animal guys before we opened it and our relationship since is a natural one. They are Kismet’s operational partners, offering support and infrastructure while we focus on daily tasks and the food. It’s amazing how many people it takes to open a restaurant at the standard you want.
How does Kismet speak to the Los Feliz neighborhood?
It’s important to us to cater to the immediate neighborhood, and that’s why we’re open all day, making sure we’re always available to our community. We also wanted to showcase the amazing farmers here in Southern California and provide our own perspective on food that is Middle Eastern-inspired but very much American.
The soft aesthetic is amplified with ceramic pendants and brass for a warm glow
For Kismet’s look, what was the design brief you gave Guga?
We wanted an ethos that was clean, comfortable, inviting, and feminine. We saw a lot of angular, modern spaces, but we wanted something softer with rounded edges, wood, ceramic pendants, and brass to add a warm glow.
Any customer favorites from the menu?
During the day, the Turkish-ish breakfast because of all the little dishes. People like variety. Also, the broccoli toast and flaky bread served with labneh and honey. At night, the menu changes to the rabbit for two we did in Brooklyn at Glasserie, lamb belly, chicken pies, freekeh fritters, and fried cauliflower. We probably won’t take those off because they’re such standouts and people clamor for them.
