The One Who Keeps the Book Los Angeles
How to Get a Table at Wilde’s, Los Feliz’s Cozy, British-Inspired Sensation
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When childhood friends Natasha Price and Tatiana Ettensberger opened Wilde’s in Los Feliz last October, they imagined a simple neighborhood restaurant—somewhere you could stop in for coffee in the morning, sip on natural wines in the evening, and end the night with meat pie and sticky toffee pudding. Price, a seasoned chef with family roots in London, shaped a menu that nods to British comfort classics through a California lens, while Ettensberger—who left her marketing career after falling in love with wine—runs front of house and the tightly curated (and very personal) beverage program. Together, the L.A.-bred pair wanted to create a casual, European-feeling neighborhood restaurant.
Instead, they unwittingly created one of the city’s most sought-after dinner reservations. Wilde’s became an overnight phenomenon, with crowds lined up outside since opening night. Originally the restaurant didn’t plan on taking any reservations, but as time went on, they realized the need for online bookability. Despite the increase in reservations (it’s now about half reservations, half walk-in), it’s still tricky to land a seat in the snug 30-seat space. So we chatted with Ettensberger to dial into the best strategies for snagging a table.
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Wilde’s has been hard to get into basically out of the gate. How do you account for its overnight success?
It was definitely unexpected. Our desire to open in Los Feliz was really based on wanting Wilde’s to be a neighborhood restaurant. We loved the idea that people could come by and have a coffee in the morning and then finish the day with a glass of wine. A walkable area was needed for that. We weren’t aware of the hunger for those types of spots in Los Feliz though. We were super surprised and caught off guard.
We opened with no reservations—that was the goal. And we had a vision of what it could look like: a stumble-in vibe, more like a European or New York thing. And we were really holding on to that. After about a month, we realized that we were actually creating the opposite issue, where people in the neighborhood couldn’t walk in, so we decided to take more reservations to try to mitigate that.
How did the two of you come together to open Wilde’s?
Natasha and I grew up together and definitely had different routes into the industry. She moved to New York when she was 18 and started working in kitchens over there. I had a more roundabout approach. I was working in marketing and wasn’t feeling super fulfilled by it and sort of had this quarter-life crisis. I got very interested in natural winemaking and dove deeper into that. I started working at Lasita, and then managed Cafe Triste in Chinatown for a couple of years before opening Wilde’s. I had always been in love with hospitality, but never with the “career” kind of mindset until I worked at those two spots. Very transformative experiences for me.
In terms of our approach at Wilde’s, Natasha is a chef who really just cares about making people happy. It’s almost like we’re hosting a dinner party every night. That’s all she is focused on. And the same goes for me in the front of the house. We both love to host at our home so Wilde’s feels like an extended version of that every day, with a lot more stress though. [laughs]
How many seats are in the house?
We have 30 seats in the dining room, five counter seats, and then two little two-tops in the back. We’ve started seating people with a full dinner menu there for walk-ins.
How many seats are bookable on Resy versus walk-ins?
It’s basically half the dining room for walk-ins and for reservations. We try to do three seatings a night. We have 10 tables and about four booked for each of those. And the rest is available for walk-in. The counter and lounge are walk-in only.
When do reservations go live on Resy?
Two weeks before the date in question at 10 a.m.
How quickly do primetime weekend reservations get snatched up?
Pretty much immediately. By the time I look at it, it’s all booked up.
How long is your Notify list?
For Wednesday and Thursday typically it’s between 200 and 300 on the Notify. Friday and Saturday it’s more like 450 to 600.
When is a guest most likely to get a Notify alert?
Our cancellation policy is before noon the day of. So I would say probably a good drop off time is just after 12 p.m.
What is your most popular time? Are there certain days where there’s a better chance to get a prime-time reservation?
7:30 p.m. is the most popular. For walk-in it really depends, the line is dying down. It used to be that coming on the early side was not that helpful because of the line that was forming upon opening.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are probably the easiest night to get a reservation. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday for walk-ins are usually a better shot than most other nights.
Are there any other tricks to getting seated? (What if we DM you?)
I would say that DMing will get the same response as the Resy page. And Resy knows what seats we have before we do. For reservations, going through Resy is the most important thing. Once it’s within the two-week window on Resy, there’s nothing I can do. If it’s outside of it, of course email us and we’ll get something on there. We’ll do our best.
Since it’s such a small restaurant, what is the maximum party size you can book?
Six for reservations on Resy. Anything above that has to be an email. For larger groups, we do have a minimum per person because of the tiny dining room.
In your opinion, what’s the best seat in the house?
There are two two tops and sometimes we put them together as a four top right when you walk in. There’s a lot of traffic at the front door. That’s the most lively area. There is a nice view of the dining room and the lounge area.
If I were here on a date or with a friend, how would you suggest ordering for two people?
I think that there are a couple ways to do it. One way would be to go heavier on the snacks. We have a delicious Stilton and pickle. Our cured pork is our fantastic new dish from our whole hog program. Doing that kind of snacking and sharing the meat pie is a really good order. A couple of good snacks and then getting the skate or the bangers and mash is another option.
How often does the menu change?
We’ve had some movement with the salads that are a bit more seasonal. In terms of mains, the filling in the meat pie changes once a month. Once we catch our bearings a bit more, we anticipate it changing more frequently.
If it’s someone’s first time at Wilde’s, what should they definitely order?
The celeriac and crackling. And then I would say you have to end with the sticky toffee pudding. The crackling is made from our whole hog program, it’s kind of a crouton. It feels very emblematic of Wilde’s.
What do you love about this space?
I love that it has a lot of older charm to it. It was really more of a restoration than a renovation. There’s these old arches that have been here forever. There’s some vintage glass. It feels like it’s been here a really long time. I want it to feel like there’s a history here. And the location is pretty hard to beat.
How would you describe your wine program at Wilde’s?
First and foremost, it feels really personal. I’m more concerned with the wine-making process itself, in the same way that we’re really particular with the farmers we work with for our menu. I cultivated a lot of relationships at Triste with winemakers and their importers and the smaller independent books in L.A. I feel like I was able to bring those relationships with me to Wilde’s, and so the list features a lot of smaller winemakers, always with the food in mind.
Which wines do you recommend ordering right now?
One that I’m really loving now is from the Ardèche from Samuel Boulay, a 2020 vintage. It has really nice tropical notes to it. It’s all Roussanne, direct press. What I love about natural wine, it just feels like there’s so much energy in it. There’s less happening in the vinification process and it arrives to you and there’s more expression. This wine feels like a really wonderful example of that.
It’s 8 p.m. on a Saturday night, can you set the scene?
It is very lively obviously. The dining room is full and there are people at the counter and at the lounge area. A lot of wine is flowing on the weekends. I like seeing people get a little more debaucherous. To me it just always feels like there’s a lot of chatter and laughter and it’s certainly a noisy restaurant.
One of our team members Alex makes these amazing playlists. And we do have different playlist names for different times of the week. On a Wednesday or Thursday where it’s maybe a little calmer and romantic, there’s a Wilde’s “wine drunk” playlist, or on a Friday we’ll probably do Wilde’s “sexy dance-y” one. We base it on the day of the week and what the particular crowd is feeling like that day.
What do you love about working in a restaurant (especially one like Wilde’s?)
The great thing about working in restaurants (compared to my former days in corporate) is that you’re working really hard but you’re always having fun. Everyday I go to work and I’m laughing and doing something that I love; so much of that has to do with the team and the people that are drawn to restaurants in general. Even on the most difficult nights of service, if we’re totally in the weeds, I feel so lucky that everyone that works here is also able to find joy in all parts of it. They take their jobs seriously. but don’t take themselves so seriously.
