When The Middle Child didn’t reopen, it looked like it was a casualty of the pandemic, and sure enough, The Restaurant Guy noticed a change-of-ownership sign in the window of 18 E. Cota Street. Digging in further, I found that the new establishment is another partnership between Brandon Ristaino and Misty Orman (The Good Lion, Test Pilot) and Jesse Gaddy, Julian Martinez, and Lenka Davis (Barbareño), who have already collaborated on the Cubaneo/Shaker Mill project. Venus in Furs, explained Ristaino, will be a natural wine bar, a cocktail bar, a bottle shop, and a restaurant, and they’re planning to soft-open in around two weeks. Look for more updates on Instagram.
P.S. About the name: Venus in Furs is an 1870 novella about sexual domination and submission by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch; it inspired a 1967 song by the Velvet Underground and a 2007 play by David Ives.
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