Glassell Park, the quiet and unassuming residential neighborhood tucked between DTLA and Highland Park, may seem an unlikely locale for a lively bistro staffed with a classically trained chef and a sommelier, certified by the Court of Masters.
Yet on a serene, tree-shaded block of Verdugo Road, Wife and the Somm has quietly established a reputation as a casually elegant, reliably accessible and delicious neighborhood joint since it opened in April 2023.
Here, Christy Lucchese is the “wife,” and her husband Chris Lucchese is the “somm,” the industry abbreviation for “sommelier” or wine steward. Their journey to this buzzy local bistro was unlikely, circuitous and inspiring for a couple with firmly established careers in the film industry. Neither had a professional background in hospitality.
Chris Lucchese was an experienced member of IATSE Local 80, working as a motion picture studio grip, while Christy traveled the world as a production manager on commercials.
As Christy recalled, “(Chris) had worked on a few commercials I was production manager on and then he owed a friend a favor. To repay that favor, he wanted to cook her dinner. They decided to cook the dinner here at my house in Silverlake.”
Chris continued, “It was just four of us, some close friends. (With) some of our mutual friends, we were taking wine trips up to Santa Barbara. I was just slowly getting into wine at that point, learning a little more, mainly about California, not much beyond that. It was the start of our relationship.”
A few months after the initial dinner, Christy was shooting a commercial in Milan, Italy. As Chris related, “They needed some equipment brought over from LA, so I hopped on a flight and brought it over. After the job was done, we traveled around Italy and loved the food, wine, vibe, and history of all of it.”
As Christy noted, “If you can travel together, (the relationship) is a keeper. Food and travel became our real passion together.” Chris moved in with Christy and the couple began hosting regular dinner parties in their backyard. “We put a pizza oven in. I got a new grill and a smoker. So we did the whole backyard up to host dinner parties.”
Around the same time, the couple watched the independent feature film “Somm” about the life and training of a sommelier. After the screening, Christy noted to Chris, “You would be so good at this. It’s full of useless facts.” She was referring to her husband’s love of trivia, as well as his growing interest in wine. “That’s what catapulted his journey down the sommelier road,” she noted.
With several years of dedicated study under his belt, Chris has certifications from the Court of Master Sommeliers and the Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) out of London, where he is studying for the notably prestigious Level IV diploma, one step away from the hallowed Master of Wine designation. His interest extended into the wine-making process as well, as he noted, “Around 2016, I enrolled at UC Davis in the viticulture enology course and I took two semesters online there to learn about winemaking and the winemaking process.”
With the success of the backyard dinner parties and Chris’ burgeoning interest in wine, the couple saw an opportunity.
“We felt there was a hole in the industry that we could fill and created this company called Home Somm, where we would come to your house and take over your kitchen and cook a five-course meal and pair a flight of wines with each course,” Christy said.
“So a flight of five wines paired with five courses. We launched it in our backyard and started doing “pop-ups” and built a website and went for it. We bring the chef and the sommelier to you.”
The concept continues to serve as the catering component of their operation, and they recently relaunched the brand and website (homesomm.com).
As the catering concept took off for them, scalable sustainability became a concern, and the notion of a brick-and-mortar location began to coalesce. But Glassell Park?
Christy had pivoted from production into real estate, focusing on the eastside.
“A pocket that I noticed that was slow to come up was Glassell Park and Cypress Park,” she said.
“That area was ready and ripe to pop. We decided to buy the building because we knew that was the only way … being our own landlord. We bought the building in 2018. We began the long process of permitting and ABC licensing. We were supposed to open in April 2020 but still had permitting delays, which actually worked to our advantage.”
Chris added, “We’re the first small business in the history of LA, where the red tape at City Hall benefitted us.”
Finally, in February 2021, the couple launched the venue as a wine shop as they continued to prep the restaurant concept, which opened the next year.
Chris said the opening was successful.
“It was just Christy and I,” he said. “We had 20 reservations and 50 showed up. We were there until about 2 a.m. and were back at 7 a.m. the next day. We went from zero to 100 in one day.”
Chris called in favors from colleagues at Bourbon Steak in Burbank, where he had been working as assistant sommelier, and a skeleton staff emerged to sustain the action.
Chef Frank Saporito started as sous chef and then took over the kitchen as CDC. Classically trained at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, Saporito reinforces the sensibility of accessible and casual sophistication that pervades here.
“He really got what we were trying to do with total seasonal menus that are constantly changing and rotating and daily specials. And having relationships with as many purveyors to get the best product at the best price,” Chris said.
The current menu at Wife and the Somm reflects this approach quite well. It is divided into five sections: a charcuterie and cheese panel; “From the Sea,” “From the Garden,” “From the Pasture” and “From the Kitchen,” which highlights the seasonal fish and pasta specials.
Current specials feature the crispy skin sumac branzino with preserved tomato and dill salad and grilled lemon aioli ($32) and pasta Bolognese, a beef and pork ragu with crushed bianco tomatoes and pecorino ($35). Other dinner menu highlights include grilled cuttlefish with Iberico lomo and squid ink sofrito ($20); Long Beach mushrooms with ginger butter and scallions ($17); cocoa-rubbed Duroc pork belly with kohlrabi slaw, dukkah and chicharron ($18) and roasted Mary’s duck breast in a Bing cherry emulsion with mofongo and salsa macha ($29). Christy serves as pastry chef, with suggested wine pairings from Chris. The Wife’s Basque Cheesecake ($7) stands out, paired with a Domaine De La Margotterie Pineau Des Charentes ($20/glass).
The bottle list is voluminous, comprehensive and reasonable starting with sparkling options from around the world ($36 to $350); white wines from France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, North and South America all ranked from “lightest to boldest” ($39 to $195); Reds ranked regionally in the same manner ($42 to $380) as well as five skin contact selections; two roses; and seven sake options. By the glass, the selections are just as diverse and include wine cocktails and chilled reds, beer and a host of non-alcoholic pours.
Chris said the wine program “demystifies wine.”
“A $20 bottle can be as good as a $500 bottle,” he added.
“To make wine and food approachable and fun, I enjoy (the opportunity) to get them a glass or bottle that is exactly what they wanted with the food that they wanted.”
The couple acknowledges their loyal and attentive staff for their hard-won success: Ryan Ristic, sous chef; Anessa Soto, Jeff Marshek and Stefan Gagliano, sommeliers; Bonita Barungi and Miguel Belmonte, bartender/servers; and Brenda Cruz and Oscar Morales, servers.
In the wake of the recent devastating wildfires, Wife and the Somm is reaching out to the locally displaced community.
“I’ve been a victim of a couple home fires in my life, and I know what it’s like to lose everything and not have a sense of place,” Chris said.
“We’re offering to anybody who has been displaced by the wildfires, to please come in and we will comp their dinner on us.”
Finally, the couple summed up their sensibility, experience and hope.
“We are about as mom and pop as you can get,” Christy said. “We have great price points. Great value. Every time you come back there’s going to be something different and something new to explore.”
Chris added, “We love meeting our neighbors. New guests and old guests. We really want it to be a spot for people to get together and hang out. Just last week, three different couples at the bar lived on the same street. It’s great to see the community that we’ve created and that people are loving.”