Abbot Kinney Boulevard is Venice's most famous street, and at No 1025, where Atla used to be, Enrique Olvera has gone to the coast. At Damián, downtown in the Arts District, the al pastor is made with duck. At San Damián it is kanpachi, glazed with achiote, grilled, and sent out with pineapple butter, paper-thin pineapple and tortillas to build your own tacos. The swap tells you most of what you need to know about the new place.
Olvera is best known for Pujol in Mexico City, Cosme in New York and Damián, which opened in 2020. San Damián is a more casual proposition and a more Californian one. It opened on 4 June 2026 in the former home of Atla, his Mexico City-style spot, which closed in 2024, and the kitchen is run by Jesus 'Chuy' Cervantes, who has led Damián's since it opened.
Cervantes has said the team always meant to do more with seafood at Damián, but the restaurant grew into one about masa. San Damián is the correction: mariscos drawn from the Pacific coast from Sinaloa and Baja California up to California, raw, cured and cooked over live fire, in a neighbourhood closer to the beach. The tortillas come from the same in-house masa programme as Damián's, with corn nixtamalised on site.
Mexico's Pacific coast, cooked a little closer to the beach.
The menu
Start raw. Diced clams come back in their shells over warm sushi rice with salsa macha on the side; there is a poached shrimp aguachile, a vermilion rockfish ceviche crowned with uni, a tuna tostada with brown butter and caramelised leeks, and an octopus cocktail. From the fire come prawns al ajillo, calamar a la plancha and pescado asado with guacachile amarillo, a whole fish, usually branzino, served with tortillas and salsas. For anyone not eating fish there is fried chicken with a pasilla glaze, carne asada and flautas made with Weiser Farms potatoes. Dessert is fresas con crema, strawberries with chantilly and meringue.
The bar runs on agave and Mexican wine. The house margarita comes with yuzu and a sansho salt rim; the Feliciano is made with cotija-washed tequila; the mezcalita is carrot, cucumber and poblano; and the zero-proof answer is house tepache, one version made with palo santo.
The room
The Mexico City studio Taller ADG, working with the brand consultant Charlotte Fischli, opened up the old dining room by knocking through walls, then lightened it with pale timber and greenery. Overhead is a petate ceiling of woven palm fronds; the bar is blue terrazzo; the chairs are by the Mexican architect Oscar Hagerman, the tables by Artless, and the walls carry colourful work by Marcela Calderón and Perla Valtierra. The plates and pottery were sourced in Mexico City, Oaxaca and Michoacán.
When to go
Dinner runs Wednesday to Sunday, and on Sundays it starts at three in the afternoon. That is the sitting to book if you want the day to end on the beach: eat early, then walk down to the boardwalk while it is still light.
