After 18 years, Sal Marino to close his Italian restaurant Il Grano

After 18 years, Sal Marino is closing his fine-dining Italian restaurant, Il Grano.

The son of the late Ciro “Mario” Marino, who opened Marino Ristorante down the street from Paramount Studios in 1983, Sal Marino stepped away from old-school Italian cooking when he opened Il Grano in 1997. With his tasting menus and beautifully plated crudo, Marino was ahead of the times, and it took a while for the restaurant to find its audience. But when it did, diners came for his fantasia di crudo, winter’s bollito misto, and summer’s Tomato Wednesdays.

“It was either sign the lease for another 10 years and end my culinary career there or do something else,” says Marino. The chef has decided to end Il Grano’s run at the end of the year. The restaurant has been sold to a group of entrepreneurs from the Valley who plan to turn it into a gastropub and lounge. La Bottega, Marino’s casual Italian cafe next door, is also part of the deal.

For the next couple of months, Marino plans to celebrate. “It’s been 18 beautiful years. And I’ll be honest, I’m thrilled. I’m happy,” says Marino. “I’ve accomplished a lot. We’ve had a Beard nomination and covers of national magazines. Unfortunately now, we’re in a world where it’s not what’s good and what’s not. It’s what’s new and what’s not.”

For Il Grano and other restaurants of its kind, the era of fine dining may be over in Los Angeles. “Nobody seems to notice anymore whether a restaurant has proper glassware or beautiful flowers on the table,” Marino says. “Who makes an investment in a deep wine list like we have anymore? It’s a different world now.”

He admits he’s also itching to do something different, something cool and exciting but without the formality of fine dining. What it will be, he’s not ready to say, other than that it will be more casual and involve good glassware and killer food. “I’m not going to be a hipster. I’m too old,” he says. “No way can I see myself making burgers or short-rib ravioli.”

It still rankles Marino that some people assumed he’d copied Mario Batali by putting crudo (raw seafood) on his menu. Crudo has a long tradition in southern Italy and, in fact, Marino was doing it at Il Grano as early as 1998, well before Batali opened his seafood restaurant Esca in 2000.

From now until the end of the year, Marino is planning to celebrate Il Grano with wine dinners and menus. He’ll be inviting some friends as guest chefs, too. “I’m going to use these last months to say thank you to all my customers over the years,” he says. There will only be two more Tomato Wednesdays due to the fact that Marino lost some of his 100 heirloom tomato plants in the recent heat wave. The last of the popular Tomato Wednesdays will be Oct. 14.

And after the restaurant closes at the end of the year? “We already have our tickets to Italy,” says Marino. His family is from Naples and he has spent a lot of time there over the years.

Back in L.A., he’ll no doubt be dropping in on Marino Ristorante, the restaurant his father and mother established on Melrose Avenue more than 50 years ago and where his brother Mario and his mom still preside, while he plans his next move.

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