About
Chefs: Jon Shook & Vinny Dotolo
Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo opened Animal restaurant in June 2008 to widespread acclaim. In the two years since opening it's doors the duo has been awarded Food & Wine Best New Chefs of 2009, received a James Beard nomination for Best New Restaurant, Rising Star Chefs by Star Chefs and Wine List of the Year by GQ Magazine.
They have been covered in numerous publications, including, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, The New Yorker, Travel + Leisure and Food & Wine magazine, and have appeared on The Morning Show, Last Call with Carson Daly and NPR’s Good Eats. The duo still operates a full service catering company, which opened the door for an appearance on Iron Chef America and paved the way for their own Food Network show, 2 Dudes Catering. Continuing their success, the guys wrote their first book for Random House publishing titled, Two Dudes One Pan. It was voted one of NPR’s “10 Best Cookbooks of 2008”.
Jon and Vinny met while attending culinary school at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in Florida. Their first job together was in the kitchen of famed chef Michelle Bernstein at The Strand Restaurant in South Beach. They continued to work in numerous other top chef kitchens in south Florida, including: Mark Millitello’s of Mark’s, Oliver Saucy of Café Maxx and Doug Reese of The River House. They left Florida to work with Ray Roach at the Wildfower Restaurant located in The Lodge at Vail in Vail, Colorado. Continuing their trajectory west, they landed in Los Angeles in 2001 where they worked with Govind Armstrong and Ben Ford at Chadwick’s before launching their own catering endeavor, and ultimately their first restaurant, Animal. They recently acquired a second restaurant location which is scheduled to be open in 2010.
Must Eat
Style
American
Hours
sunday-thurs | 6pm-11pm |
friday and saturday | 6pm-2am |
Price Range
$31-$60
Menu
Location
URL
http://www.animalrestaurant.com