This might be San Diego’s biggest opening of 2025. Lucien, a highly anticipated fine dining concept from Chef Elijah Arizmendi, is finally here.
Arizmendi’s two partners at the restaurant, Brian Hung and Melissa Lang, met while working at Thomas Keller’s three Michelin-starred Per Se restaurant in New York City. Hung and Arizmendi eventually moved to one Michelin-starred l’Abeille (Arizmendi as chef de cuisine, his biggest role yet), all the while talking about what would become Lucien on the completely different coast.
The rest of the team have worked in Michelin kitchens as well—pastry chef Isabella Alicea was pastry sous chef at Per Se, and beverage director James Meringer was head sommelier at l’Abeille. (If it takes a village, this is the crew you want by your side.)
In the kitchen, Arizmendi says he’ll mix his ultra-precision techniques honed over his career while also embracing the capricious nature of open-fire cooking.
“I hope that down the line people, when they talk about the restaurant, they say that we’re pushing the envelope for what California cuisine is,” he says.
