Skip to content
Linden Pride and Nathalie Hudson, co-owners of Dante and Dante West, are adding a Los Angeles outpost in 2023. Photo credit: Robert Fitch

Cocktails

Raising the Bar in Beverly Hills

The co-owners of NYC’s legendary Dante plan to open their first West Coast outpost on a posh LA hotel rooftop before next year’s Oscars.

The new West Coast branch of Dante, opening on the rooftop of the Maybourne Beverly Hills hotel early next year, will feature the same winning formula that’s helped make its West Village siblings among New York’s most beloved day-drinking spots—with the same lush landscaping around its outdoor tables, up-tempo blues soundtrack, and late-afternoon drink deals (in New York, daily Negroni and martini happy hours keep the cocktails flowing from 3 to 5pm). 

Australian expats Linden Pride and Natalie Hudson have helped drive the mania for Italian aperitivi currently gripping New York ever since they took over the original Caffe Dante on MacDougal Street in 2015. The couple’s off-market deal prevented the city landmark, a cake and coffee institution originally established in 1915, from becoming a Magnolia Bakery.

Pride and Hudson, veterans of the Sydney bar and restaurant scene, kept the spot’s original antique decor and morning café vibe, but morphed the space over the course of the day into a simple Italian restaurant where the cocktails come first. “For a long time, we’d have the two different crowds: the old-school Dante regulars who would come in for coffee and cake and then at the same time we would have the young kids coming in for Negronis,” says Pride.

“For a long time, we’d have two different crowds: the old-school Dante regulars coming in for coffee and cake and the young kids coming in for Negronis.” – Linden Pride, Dante co-owner
Dante is known for its Negronis, like this Chocolate Negroni. Photo credit: Steve Freihon
Dante is known for its Negronis, like this Chocolate Negroni. Photo credit: Steve Freihon
Linden Pride and Nathalie Hudson, co-owners of Dante and Dante West, are adding a Los Angeles outpost in 2023. Photo credit: Robert Fitch
Linden Pride and Nathalie Hudson, co-owners of Dante and Dante West, are adding a Los Angeles outpost in 2023. Photo credit: Robert Fitch

In 2019, the new boozy version of Caffe Dante earned the top spot on the World’s 50 Best Bars list. The spotlight brought opportunities to serve drinks around the world—sparking pop-ups in Sao Paolo, Dubai, Vancouver, and New Orleans—until the pandemic brought travel to a halt.

By the time city life began roaring back last year, Dante’s international acclaim had caught the attention of the management team at Claridge’s in London.

Last spring, to celebrate the U.S. launch of the hotel’s new cocktail book, the Claridge’s bar team spent three days in residence at the second, more spacious Dante, which the couple had opened on Hudson Street in the summer of 2020. Hotel managers from across Claridge’s parent Maybourne Hotel group also traveled to New York as guests of Dante that week. “We were showcasing what we were about to their leadership team and hosting them,” says Pride. “The relationship really started there.”

“I was at Dante drinking a Garibaldi with their fluffy orange juice. I thought, I can’t wait to try this with a California orange, it will be even better.” – Eugene Leonard, GM of Maybourne Beverly Hills
Dante’s signature Garibaldi will be served poolside in LA. Photo credit: Steve Freihon
Dante’s signature Garibaldi will be served poolside in LA. Photo credit: Steve Freihon

The Claridge’s residency went so well that Maybourne management invited Dante to install a pop-up bar at their first American outpost, in Beverly Hills. Pride turned them down. “We weren’t interested in doing pop-ups anymore,” he says. “We came back to them and said, ‘we think we’d like to do something long-term instead.’”

If all goes well, the new fast-tracked Dante will open in time for the Oscars, with both indoor and outdoor tables as well as lounge seating around the pool, with magnificent views of the Hollywood sign in the distance.

“To have some of the world’s best cocktails and that incredible atmosphere they’ve created in the West Village, to put that on a rooftop in California, it feels like a bit of a dream for us,” says Eugene Leonard, General Manager of the Maybourne Beverly Hills. “Last time I was in New York, I was at Dante drinking a Garibaldi with their fluffy orange juice. I thought, I can’t wait to try this with a California orange, it will be even better.” 

Dante is slated to open at the Maybourne Beverly Hills at 225 N Canon Dr. in early 2023.

Related
Burj Al Arab hotel and Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE
High and low

A Tale of Two Restaurants

Dining at Dubai’s most memorable eateries—one half a mile in the sky, the other under water.

Red heart-shaped chair
A little TLC

DP’s Valentine’s Day Gift Guide

Treat the ones you love with gifts they'll actually want—you can seal with a kiss.

Chef Rich Torrisi’s original NYC venture was located around the corner from his new incarnation in the Puck Building. He draws inspiration from Nolita and Little Italy. Photo courtesy of Major Food Group
Dining Out

Rich Torrisi Goes Glam

The New York chef’s glitzy Torrisi Bar & Restaurant is like the cocktail party you don’t want to leave.

Red mini with gifts piled on top, tied with a huge red ribbon
Ho, ho, ho!

DP’s Holiday Gift Guide 2023

Anyone who says, “Oh, I don’t want anything this year!” has obviously not seen DP’s list. We invite you to get your greed on.

More

Join us for the party

Join us for the party