What Chez Mar is
Chez Mar is a neighborhood oyster bar opening at 12222 Venice Blvd in Mar Vista, Los Angeles. A short menu, careful sourcing, a thoughtful natural wine list, and a room that feels like someone’s home because, in a real way, it is.
Where Chez Mar is
12222 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles — in the heart of Mar Vista. The name isn’t an accident. We wanted a place that belonged to this stretch of the Westside: walkable, a little under-the-radar, and surrounded by the farmers’ markets, neighbors, and regulars we already cook for.
Why Chef Wesley
Wesley Barden has spent years in kitchens that usually lead to someone else’s flagship — most recently as part of the team behind Esters Wine Shop & Bar. Chez Mar is the menu he’s been writing in the margins of every job he’s held. His food is precise without being precious, with a clear point of view. That, more than anything, is what we wanted to bet on.
Why mentorship
Most chefs who could be running their own kitchen never get the chance. The capital is too high, the runway too short, and the industry too quick to chew through talent before it can find its footing. Chez Mar is structured as a launchpad. Wesley owns the menu, the room, and the long-term upside. We provide the kitchen, the build-out, the operating support, and a mentor bench of chefs and operators who’ve already made the mistakes so he doesn’t have to. The goal isn’t to open one restaurant — it’s to prove a model that opens the next one, and the one after that.
The Medium Fine production kitchen
Behind Chez Mar is the Medium Fine production kitchen — the commissary that handles prep, fermentation, baking, and pastry for the projects we incubate. It’s the reason a small front-of-house can punch above its weight: a tiny dining room doesn’t have to absorb the cost of a full back-of-house. It’s also where the mentorship happens day-to-day — Wesley alongside the other chefs and bakers in the building, trading notes, sharing equipment, and pressure-testing ideas long before they hit a plate at the restaurant.