Here’s an interesting one for always-churning Koreatown: Second Floor Restaurant Bar & Grillhas arrived, offering keenly-priced Italian pastas and wine from, yep, the second story of a strip mall off Vermont Avenue.
If the name sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because this is the former 2nd Floor Gastropub and Sports Bar space, a more casual Korean-leaning bar food spot that opened in 2016 but didn’t seem to get a ton of traction. Now it’s been reformatted by co-owner Mike Kim into this new Italian restaurant, with co-owner help from none other than Stefano Ongaro. The latter is a Venice, Italy native who cut his teeth as the longtime manager at Valentino and was behind the shuttered All’Angelo Italian restaurant on Melrose, where L’Assiette Steak Frites is now.
