Crudo e Nudo anchors Santa Monica’s vibrant Main Street as a celebrated sustainable seafood restaurant and biodynamic wine bar, just steps from the beach. Since transitioning from a pop-up to a brick-and-mortar in April 2021, it has earned spots on the Los Angeles Times “101 Best Restaurants” (2023) and The Infatuation LA’s “Best New Restaurants” (2021). The brainchild of Chef/Owner Brian Bornemann—a Santa Monica native who previously owned Isla and honed his craft at Michael's, The Tasting Kitchen and Viale dei Romani—Crudo e Nudo advances the sourcing and awareness of California’s rich seafood biodiversity. Inspired by trips to southern Italy and developed from his crudo program at Viale dei Romani, Brian showcases the Mediterranean tradition of serving great, local fish with amazing olive oil and wine into something that’s uniquely Los Angeles.

The chalkboard menu, hand-written daily, pulls the “greatest hits” from waters between Baja and Monterey: red and purple uni, whelks, ridgeback shrimp, spiny lobsters, vermillion rockfish, abalone, bluefin tuna, spot prawns, among 20+ other species that rotate with the Pacific Ocean’s macro and micro-seasons. Whole fish from Brian’s trusted purveyors are humanely harvested using the “ikejime method,” dry-aged in-house and the entire restaurant staff is trained in “sukibiki” (the Japanese method of descaling without bruising the flesh). Open every day from 12-9pm, the jewel box of a dining room and sidewalk patio offer a breezy atmosphere for a post beach happy hour over oysters, tinned fish and spritzes and a leisurely lunch over a steaming bowl of mussels and a farmers’ market-driven salad. Come evening, one can enjoy a beautiful dinner or explore the Neptune’s Flight (a multi-course, chef’s tasting menu) paired with a rotating selection of biodynamic wines curated by Wine Director Simona Topuzovska. 

This holistic philosophy of honoring the ocean's bounty extends to how the restaurant operates, and Brian has reworked the independent restaurant business model to allow for equity, creativity and quality of life. Crudo e Nudo has eliminated single-use plastics in the kitchen, composts (even oyster shells get recycled or repurposed by local artists), offers a generous healthcare stipend, and operates on an alternative four-day work model with cross-trained staff (chefs pour wine, servers shuck oysters) to eliminate the age-old schism between front and back-of-house.