Walking into Lucia, one of the first things you notice is the bar’s curved architecture, backlit and bottle-lined, humming with a low-key energy that signals you’ve arrived somewhere special. Then you see the banquet seating, similar in shape, beckoning bodies to get comfortable and enjoy the experience.
Taking a deeper look at the banquettes, you may finally notice the celebs nestled into their seats. On this night, Usher was there for a quiet meal. As he left, Saweetie—flanked by friends—was settling in to celebrate a birthday, according to one of the pals.
Yes, Lucia is the place where celebrities don’t flock to be seen; they go there for the food—and it’s all because this renovated space serves elevated Caribbean dishes, something that still isn’t incredibly available in a city that caters to a celebrity clientele.
“For LA to be such a diverse city, I didn’t have like a lot of high-end cuisine serving dishes from the African diaspora,” shared Lucia owner Sam Jordan, who launched the restaurant in 2024.
With this, his first self-owned location, he’s determined to eradicate the lines, while giving props to the many mom-and-pop shops located throughout the city, adding that this was his way of adding another level to the options. “It’s important for our community here to break down barriers and give a different perspective of the cuisine and highlight it in a way that pretty much every other cuisine is highlighted,” he stressed.
Traveling extensively as a child inspired Jordan’s love of food and entrepreneurship. “Throughout all my travels, I’d fallen in love with different restaurants and different cuisines,” he shared.
“I kept saying that one day I want to open up my own restaurant, and as I got older, I thought, how do I actually put this childhood dream of a real brick and mortar establishment into motion and run a business?”
With Jordan’s first fully owned space, he knew the menu would be key to enticing a hungry clientele. Those delectable dishes fall into the hands of Chef Cleophus “Ophus” Hethington, a flavor-first craftsman, who effortlessly brings fine-dining eye with Caribbean soul to the table. His path is simple: tap into authentic ingredients, add unexpected flavor profiles and techniques, and plate it for visual and tasty appeal.
Upon meeting him, it’s evident this innovator is all about flavor and presentation, whether it’s coconut rice and peas, or a callaloo dish mixed with spinach, collard greens, butternut squash and okra, alongside main meals like a NY strip with fufu.
Then there are the plantains.
“I love plantains and here, it’s my plantains served in three different ways,” Chef Hethington declared proudly over his Plantain Expressions—served as maduros and chips with BBQ sauce. Or the Chayote and Guava Chow, a mix of starfruit, gooseberries, plantain and Marcona almonds.
With Lucia, Jordan also wants to celebrate the culture’s heritage—and the many dishes born of African innovation over the last 400 years. “Black American cuisine is kind of lost on like the general population—not just Black people, but America in general,” he stated.
“We don’t necessarily draw those connections when actually there are a lot of connections through African cuisine and the Caribbean. You have similar techniques and ingredients and styles that have been passed down through generations, through travel, through colonization, through enslavement, and all these aspects of shared history make it to the plate.”
And it’s delicious.