Lemon Grove at The Aster

Lemon Grove sits on the roof of The Aster at the corner of Hollywood and Vine, a 7,200-square-foot indoor-outdoor room with space for a hundred or so, looking straight out at the Hollywood Sign, the Capitol Records building and the hills behind them. It opened in October 2022 and has turned over its leadership since: the kitchen is now run by executive chef Daniel Pfeifer-Kotz, whose career runs through Beauty & Essex and Laurel Hardware in Los Angeles and Cacao in Miami, and the cocktails are credited to Ash Ramos. It serves dinner from five Tuesday through Sunday, brunch at weekends from ten, and closes on Mondays.

One point of access needs clearing up, because it is the thing that stops people going. The Aster is a private membership club — annual dues run into the thousands — and that puts people off assuming the restaurant is closed to them. It is not. Lemon Grove is explicitly open to locals, hotel guests and members, in its own words; the only part reserved for members and their guests is the weekday lunch. Brunch, dinner, the bar and the lounge are all public, and you can book like anywhere else. What you get for the trip, if you are not drinking, is a printed Zero Proof section rather than an off-menu favour. Three named mocktails sit on it: The Afters, which runs espresso with cherry syrup, cola and cocoa and is effectively a dessert; Meet Me In Venice, a long grapefruit and ginger beer drink finished with mint and smoked salt; and Leading Lady, seasonal berries with lemon, cranberry and sparkling brut. Alongside them the bar pours real non-alcoholic wine rather than juice — Lyre's Classico Grande sparkling brut, and Giesen's dealcoholised Sauvignon Blanc and rosé, both from Marlborough in New Zealand, which is the region that does this better than anywhere — plus Athletic Brewing's non-alcoholic golden ale. Forbes summed up the value of that fairly: bonus points for a thoughtful zero-proof menu, because everyone deserves something fun to sip under the stars. One caveat: the menu's layout suggests a flat $16 across the zero-proof list, but we could not confirm it with certainty, so check when you order.