""Fire isn't inherently bad or good; it's a powerful force," says Tyler Wells, the owner of Betsy in Altadena and former co-owner of All Time in Los Feliz. "It can warm your house, cook your food, create energy, or it can do really horrible things.""
""There's an opportunity to use fire as a force of good and change the experience of it," he tells me."
""I recognize the privilege and the luck to say that this fire really caused me a lot of problems, but it also did what historically fires do in the forest: cleared away all this underbrush," he says. "I've emerged from this with so many things in focus.""
Tyler Wells lost his home in the January 2025 Eaton Fire while his live-fire restaurant, then called Bernee, survived and will reopen on August 30, 2025. Wells describes fire as a powerful force that can warm, cook, create energy, or cause destruction, and sees an opportunity to use fire for good. The restaurant filled a narrow dining room with three seatings nightly during its first 31 nights, building a loyal crowd by word of mouth. Wells aims to support Altadena's recovery now rather than waiting for homes to be rebuilt. The space occupies a former photography studio near Lake Avenue at Mariposa Junction.
Read at Eater LA
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]