Gusto Green
The years-in-the-making Gusto Green leans into plants in all its forms with a big new 200-seat restaurant. First announced in 2018, the collaborative, multi-story space from Gusto 54 and its founder Janet Zuccarini — successful Canadian operators known locally for running Felix in Venice — is meant to be more than just a restaurant. With tendrils into the health, wellness, and cannabis arenas, it also represents creative entrepreneurship.
First up is Gusto Green, run by Gusto 54 with menu direction from chef Michael Magliano, previously of the French Laundry, Craft, San Francisco’s Quince, and Animal in Los Angeles. The restaurant is not a cannabis consumption lounge and does not imbue food or drinks with any psychoactive components (such as THC), though it does have an exclusive relationship with the only federally approved hemp grower for food, Ziese Farms. As such, the mostly plant-based, though not exclusively, menu will at times lean into the use of hemp, including as a standalone leaf battered with chickpea flour to be served as a starter. Magliano will also offer a variety of hemp-made goods as part of a future retail component.