Brentwood has never lacked for places to eat. San Vicente Boulevard runs thick with neighborhood stalwarts and expense-account lunch spots. But Neighborly, the food hall concept that opened its second California location there on April 2, is doing something specific: betting that Angelenos still want to sit down together.
The original Neighborly landed in Westlake Village at the end of 2024. The Brentwood outpost moves into the former home of Planta, a space built with midcentury bones and enough natural light to make food look the way it does in cookbooks. Mario Del Pero, who helped build Mendocino Farms into one of Southern California’s most recognizable fast-casual brands, is part of the team behind this one. The concept reads as a direct counterargument to the ghost kitchen era: multiple real restaurants, a marketplace, bar seating, and actual tables where people eat with other people.
Guests order from any of the five vendors at one of three kiosk screens or at the bar, then settle in. The marketplace runs alongside the made-to-order stations, stocking pre-packaged chipotle chicken breast, La Palma burrito boxes, frozen La Morra pizzas, and chicken Parmesan to go.
Mini Kabob Comes West
The anchor of the lineup, at least for anyone who has made the pilgrimage to Glendale for it, is Mini Kabob. The family-run stand on Glendale Avenue has been folding lavash around marinated meat and bright, acidic shirazi salad for years, accumulating a following that runs from Armenian American families to food writers who know what they’re doing. Bringing it to Brentwood is not a small thing.
The Neighborly menu expands slightly on what Mini Kabob offers in Glendale. The lavash wrap comes packed with shirazi salad, clouds of garlic toum, and a choice of marinated steak or chicken thigh, the kind of thing where the flatbread goes soft and fragrant at the edges from the heat of the meat. Mama Alva’s Plate offers hummus or tzatziki, rice or ancient grains, that same shirazi salad, and your protein. There is also a kid’s lavash with melted cheese, which is the right call for anyone who has ever tried to get a seven-year-old interested in toum.
Questlove’s Gluten-Free Burger Joint
Mixtape, the burger concept from Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, brings a specific vision to the format: everything is gluten-free, and the brioche bun is made in-house. The crispy chicken sandwich sits on that bun with the kind of crunch that registers before you bite. The OGB Cheese Burger stacks a chicken patty under American cheese. The Better Tender Box Set pairs gluten-free tenders with waffle fries.
The dessert section, called “Saturdaes,” serves dairy-free coconut soft serve with three topping configurations: strawberries and oat streusel, toffee candied peanuts with salted caramel, or brownies with almond brittle. The cold against the crunch against something sweet and slightly bitter from the brittle is the kind of combination that works in practice and sounds almost too considered on paper.
California Salads and Sicilian Dough
Gaby Dalkin, the cookbook author and cooking personality behind What’s Gaby Cooking, brings seasonal California fare to the mix. Her menu at Neighborly covers a Caesar avocado wrap with crispy chicken breast, a prosciutto and burrata sandwich on toasted ciabatta, a Chinese chicken salad in miso vinaigrette, and a sesame ginger teriyaki bowl with either chicken or mushrooms. The flavors are bright and produce-forward, the kind of food that feels tuned to what Brentwood actually eats on a Tuesday.
Palermo Pizza Club belongs to Frank Pinello, who founded Best Pizza in Williamsburg and has spent years thinking seriously about dough. At Neighborly, he works with 48-hour fermented Sicilian dough, which means a crust with some chew and a yeasty, complex base. The Queen Margherita uses fior di latte. The Chicken Parm Pie comes with a breaded cutlet pressed into the cheese. There is also rigatoni alla vodka, a Caesar, and a kid’s cheese pizza for the table that ordered the kid’s lavash wrap at Mini Kabob.
This article draws on reporting from Eater.
What the Format Is Actually Doing
Food halls in Los Angeles have proliferated in the past several years, but most of them have sorted into two categories: tourist destinations built around Instagram moments, and delivery-only ghost kitchen setups that exist mainly as addresses. Neighborly is trying to be neither.
The Brentwood location specifically pulls together operators with real track records and distinct identities. Mini Kabob is not a concept invented for a food hall; it is a real restaurant with a real community around it. Pinello has a decade of documented commitment to his craft. Del Pero’s background at Mendocino Farms suggests an operator who understands scale without sacrificing specificity.
Whether a single space can hold five different food identities without flattening them is a real question. The design at least gives it room. The midcentury light-filled building on San Vicente, the bar, the marketplace component: all of it suggests a place that wants to be part of the neighborhood’s daily rhythm rather than an occasion destination.
Neighborly Brentwood sits at 11754 San Vicente Boulevard and runs every day from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., with dine-in, takeout, and delivery all available.