Check Out Dom Crisp’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dom Crisp. They and their team shared their story with us below:

The Lonely Oyster established in 2022 and nestled in bustling Echo Park.

From Owner/Operator Don Andes (Little Joy Cocktails Echo Park, Out There Bar 29 Palms) Andes ensures his team is provided with the necessary tools to foster a safe and empowering platform for creativity and growth. Andes also swims in the music industry ocean where he spent a decade working for giant EMI and traveling the world, this led to his co-ownership in Portia Street Recording Studio. Andes completed his MBA at Babson Boston in 2010.

The Lonely Oyster is built around educating customers in the following:

Raw Bar – Expertly trained raw bar staff educates customers in all things saltwater. (Product sourcing, flavor profile, finish, and sustainability.) An education in merrior is a mandatory class during The Lonely Oyster dining experience.

Seafood – Executive Chef Dom Crisp showcases his unparalleled, seafood-focused culinary expertise through his brunch, lunch, dinner, and nightwatch menu seven days a week.

Maritime Cocktails – Our in-house mixologists inform customers on which of their original cocktails pairs most perfectly with each of our daily oyster selections. Prepared fresh daily juices with seasonal ingredients tie together a playful mosaic of symbiosis.

Exceptional Wine – In addition to our featured wine list highlighting coastal, biodynamic and natty wines of the world, Crisp sources his families renowned organic Willamette Valley wines crafted by his brother, Boone Crisp.

All of these parts are designed to cohesively inspire a thirst for merroir and invoke a sensory travel experience through shared knowledge.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Running a high-volume, sustainable seafood restaurant in the aftermath of a pandemic has presented many challenges. The biggest challenge we face is staffing our restaurant with well-trained, invested workers and providing a safe workspace. We also face the ever-changing climate which affects logistics, especially in seafood quality and availability.

Opening The Lonely Oyster in the summer of 2022 was a booming success, but with every birth comes growing pains. After a successful launch, we were left without an Executive Chef and GM, which proved challenging in the early months of a successful, buzzing new business. Navigating a few months in flux opened a new door the Captains role and in walked Chef Dom Crisp to take the helm.

“Working at Lonely has presented an ideal situation for me personally living only 15 minutes from the location. The Lonely Oyster is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner and allows me to be here during impact times instead of late at night or all the time which allows me to be with my new son Julien who is now only four months old and spend time with my lovely wife Alicia. These times away from the restaurant allow my creativity to flow and appreciation for my situation to grow. A lot of Chefs do not get this balance and do not get to work with a company or owner that shares these core key values that if the work is done and things are running well, we all get time to play away from here” -Chef Dom Crisp

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Being a Chef, I specialize in coastal cuisine which means taking bounty from the ocean, the seaside, the rivers that flow to the ocean with forests and foothills beyond. I am most proud of sourcing and doing this in a sustainable fashion with shellfish specifically being the greatest sustainable protein that is farmed and actually creates a better situation for the environment it is pulled from. My story is woven into the sustainable farm practices my family demonstrates in the winemaking. Being born on the vineyard in the Willamette Valley, Lumos wine is salmon safe and organically farmed and crafted and has always been. I have taken these standards into my cooking practices, sourcing responsibly and locally as much as possible and cultivating relationships that have fruitful outcomes, allowing me to get products others would not have access too. A chef is a curator and I make sure my menus are peppered with a variety of quality seafood options that are not only the freshest but familiar and a testament to the environment they are crafted, this current one being Los Angeles. My food is vibrant and showcases the terroir or “merroir” from where it came.

Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
My favorite books are cookbooks, anything Yotam Ottolenghi puts out, specifically NOPI or Josh Niland’s books about working with fish, The Whole fish book. I am big-time into true crime podcasts, my favorite being Casefile, the narrators Australian accent seems to make all the terribleness palatable. I am not a blog boy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lonelyoyster.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_lonely_oyster/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/lonelyoyster/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-lonely-oyster-los-angeles

Image Credits
Brooke Olsen