I had come into Kismet a few weeks earlier and decided then and there that I had to come back to interview the team behind it—this place was a restaurant that felt like it’d been open for years. The service was impeccable, the food was comforting, fresh, and perfectly satisfying, and the space was a welcome addition to the neighborhood. When I told Sara about my first experience, a small grin came onto her face and she said, “That’s so good to hear. We’ve put in a lot of work to get this place off the ground. Because we were working with Jon (Shook) and Vinny (Dotolo), we had the luxury of going to their restaurants to learn their systems. We just did a lot of planning.”

The partnership with Jon and Vinny happened organically, “We got here and Vinny actually Instagrammed me. He said, ‘You live here now. Let’s go get breakfast.’ He was so generous to just reach out to the new kids and said, ‘Oh, you guys should do a pop up at Animal.’ It was awesome, especially because he’s the king of LA.”

Cue: “Plastic” by Moses Sumney

After moving from New York less than three years ago, having a pop-up at Animal, and opening Madcapra in 2015, co-owners Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson’s decided it was time to create a neighborhood spot in Los Feliz. “We want to service this neighborhood. I think if we served too lofty a creative vision, we would miss that mark. It’s about trying something that pushes some boundaries, but not too many that it doesn’t feel familiar. We want people to be able to come here literally all day, every day.”

What does feel unfortunately unfamiliar is that Kismet is run by two female chefs, a rare commodity in the restaurant industry—but they want to change that by supporting women within the field. “I wish there were more women cooks banging on our door—it’s really important to us, we’ve brought a lot of women into the space and want even more.”

Like their partnership with Jon and Vinny, when it came to the actual location, Sara said it “all just fell together very quickly.” They didn’t look at many spaces and quickly landed on this one. It’s apparent this space was meant to be when you see the minimal design, the beautiful graphic design by Claire Hungerford, and plates by ceramicist Helen Levi.

Cue: “Location” by Khalid

Along with the creative community, the Los Angeles food community has also stepped in and shown their support. “People are so eager to help and tons of chefs have been in to eat already—Josef Centeno, Ori from Bestia, and Zack Pollack. Instead of being against each other, we’re here for each other.”

After talking to Sara, I couldn’t help but think, sometimes it’s easy to step in line and directly into what everyone else is doing—it’s easy to just reenact and recreate. But what Kismet is doing is far beyond that—it’s what’s in-between the lines. People want warmth, people want comfort, people want good tasting food. Kismet takes that warmth and that mentality and elevates it into something you might not have ever had, but for some reason, feels familiar. Maybe it’s in the touch of cumin you remember from your mom’s cooking when they bring you the Shakshuka, or maybe it’s the crisp cucumbers you used to eat with a little salt in the summers that they so beautifully dress with rosewater labneh in their Persian Cucumber Salad.

Kismet isn’t changing everything you’ve ever known about food, but it’s giving you a fresh perspective. It’s a place to be excited about and a place that doesn’t feel cold and isolated. Los Angeles is full of those places—full of lines, VIP statuses, and exclusions—but Kismet isn’t that. It’s where you grew up, it’s that friend’s house you can pop by anytime and have something warm out of the oven and hot off the stove—and after all we’ve been through this year, maybe a meal with a good friend and some good music can make you feel better than you have in a long time.

Cue: “Everything Is Everything” by Lauryn Hill

For more on Kismet, follow them on Instagram or check out their website.