Hotel Figueroa’s main restaurant, Deme, opens Tuesday, August 13, with a fresh look and a menu showcasing the eastern side of the Mediterranean. Located next to the hotel’s pool, Deme is inspired by Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and Lebanon. A mural depicting a Greek goddess overlooks the dining room and an expanded terrace.

Built in 1926, Hotel Figueroa, one of LA’s most iconic buildings, underwent an extensive, multi-year renovation before reopening in 2018 under the direction of chef Casey Lane. Alleged operational issues and labor disputes plagued Hotel Fig’s previous food and beverage operator, Noble 33, and culminated in the layoff of 100 unionized employees in February 2024. At that point, the Botanical Group, the same team that owns Grandmaster Recorders and EP & LP, took over the nearly 100-year-old hotel’s food and beverage program.

Grandmaster Recorder’s executive chef Blake Shailes believes the 80-seat ground-floor restaurant was better suited to Mediterranean cuisine. The Australian-born chef incorporated familiar ideas from his home country, personal travels and the history of Hotel Fig. Australia’s largest Muslim population is Turkish, and there is a long history of restaurants in Melbourne and Sydney, many of which Shailes knows. For years he also travelled extensively throughout the eastern Mediterranean. In 1926, Hotel Figueroa began as a YWCA and became a haven for women travelling alone. It was a place funded and run by women, for women. “Deme came about because I was trying to strengthen the female history of Hotel Figueroa,” says Shailes. “It was important to us to carry on that legacy.”

Start with the hot pita bread made with Tehachapi Farms’ Kamut and Red Fife flour, served with hummus, muhammara, whipped ricotta with caramelized harissa honey, and a whipped cod roe taramasalata. Shailes puts a twist on dolmades by wrapping bluefin tuna, sesame leaves, pickled melon, crispy puffed rice, and serrano chiles in thinly sliced ​​cucumber. Shailes fries filo dough and stuffs it with lobster for the golden-brown kataifi. He also mixes up a summery fattoush salad, skewers grilled octopus, and bakes Turkish-style manti dumplings in a paprika-brown butter sauce with dried mint and sumac.

Large plates feature bone-in ribeye steak grilled over an open fire, grilled shawarma with yellow oyster mushrooms and slow-cooked shawarma with duck. The soft ice cream machine uses kaymak, a Turkish spread, and is drizzled with sesame caramel and black salt from Cyprus.

Bar manager Milosz Cieslak, also of Grandmaster Recorders, names the drinks after Greek goddesses. The Iris combines vodka, minty Strega liqueur, rose, apricot and blueberry, while the Calypso is shaken with D’usse cognac, Metaxa brandy, Pedro Ximénez wine, Mediterranean tea blend, honey, clarified Greek yogurt and verjuice.

First-time designers Juliette Labelle and Karina Fontes designed the space, enlisting local muralist Tim Nguyen for the wall-sized artwork that overlooks the dining room. It depicts a scene of Demeter and other Greek goddesses lounging outdoors. One side is completely open to the pool, which provides additional outdoor seating. By the end of September, the team will remove the south-facing poolside cabana areas and add dining tables.

As for Hotel Figueroa’s remaining restaurants – Bar Magnolia, Cafe Fig, the Cafeteria and La Casita at Driftwood – the hotel plans to revitalize them in the coming months.

Deme at Hotel Figueroa is open Tuesday through Thursday from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Friday and Saturday until 11:00 p.m. and is located at 939 S. Figueroa Street, Downtown Los Angeles, CA, 90015.