The healthy food eatery, Alfalfa is opening its second LA location early this summer in the Larchmont Village neighborhood, at the corner of Beachwood and Melrose, on the ground floor of the Gillis House at 5570 Melrose Avenue.
Alfalfa, which specializes in vegetarian-friendly salads and burritos, started in Hoboken, New Jersey. It was the idea of four childhood friends who longed for delicious, high quality, healthy food they’d grown accustomed to finding everywhere in big cities like New York and LA, but couldn’t easily find in their hometown.  Dan Londono, Dan Sobsey and Andrew Arrospide decided to try selling healthy salads loaded with fresh, seasonal ingredients locally sourced at their hometown’s farmers market in 2018.
“We all grew up in Hoboken and decided to give up our corporate jobs and see if we could follow our passion for healthy food and make it work as a business,” explained co-founder Andrew Arrospide in an interview with the Buzz last month. To their surprise and delight, their offerings were wildly popular. In fact, so popular, they graduated from a tent at the farmers market to a pop-up, and quickly became a full-fledged restaurant in 2018. In 2020, the pandemic forced them to close the restaurant space for awhile, but they were able re-open and have found the business even stronger as people working from home look for healthy food options.
Arrospide told the Buzz he’d been trying to find a way back to LA. He’d spent time here working in the events and entertainment industry several years ago. As luck and timing would have it, in 2021, he and his partners opened an Alfalfa location on Main Street in Santa Monica. Shortly thereafter, they starting thinking about a second location when Gillis House developer Mishel Mikail reached out to them. They decided to take the ground floor space on the corner. We first heard about the restaurant last March and actually got a chance to sample their food when we covered the opening of the YouBe Co-working space in the same building. (YouBe has since closed and been replaced by Blank Spaces.)
None of the founders are chefs; they are entirely self-taught. Starting with recipes and menus developed during their early famers market days, they continue to evolve and try new combinations. They also focus on hospitality and customer service, said Arrospide.
“We put our guests first. For example, a team member guides a customer selecting elements for their salad or wrap. We like to put the guests first.” And he said that’s working, and he’s pleased the food is resonating with customers. When we spoke, they were about to open their second location in New Jersey. With Larchmont, they will have four locations. In a few weeks, they will also be an official food vendor at Coachella.
“We are very excited to be in Larchmont, it’s a great community,” said Arrospide. “Once we get Jersey City Open, we will be ready to focus on Larchmont and we hope to be open early summer.”
