Alta Restaurant reopens in West Adams after a remodel with a new menu

One of the city's most famous California soul food restaurants just reopened with an even more creative global menu, and its co-founder is now in full charge.

When chefs Keith Corbin and Daniel Patterson debuted in Alta in 2018, the restaurant amassed a legion of followers who flocked to West Adams for Corbin's take on Watts soul food, made with LA and California produce. In a glowing 2019 review, Los Angeles Times food critic Bill Addison called it “a synergist for conversations about the evolving definition and direction of soul food in America,” and Corbin subsequently received two Nodes from the James Beard Award Foundation.

But a series of adversities, including the pandemic and severe business declines following the Palisades and Eaton fires, changed the restaurant to the point where Corbin felt it had “lost its identity.” In 2025, Corbin and Patterson amicably severed their partnership, allowing Corbin to fully focus on Alta and Patterson to launch Jacaranda, his own return to fine dining; The duo still runs Locol and their nonprofit Alta Community together.

After a year of soul-searching, Corbin closed his West Adams restaurant in February and returned in late May with a new menu “infused with migration, memory and fire,” Corbin said, loosely weaving together migratory routes — of communities and ingredients — from around the world. For Corbin, it's “a true representation of LA” and has proven to be a “revival” for the chef.

“I started learning about these cultural collision points in these migrations and trade routes and this big connection between Africa, Asia and Mesoamerica or Mexico, and as I thought about it, that was the same connection that I have here in LA,” Corbin said. “I think, well, that is Soul food.”

Now he serves dishes like West African osso buco, blending flavors from Mexico, Asia and the Middle East with Scotch bonnets, red palm oil, tomatoes and cinnamon that flavor the coconut braising sauce and bed of couscous.

Gone is Alta's signature fried chicken with a vibrant, homemade Fresno hot sauce. Gone are the kale leaves wrapped in a single leaf and fried in smoked oil. Corbin is certainly concerned about how longtime fans of the restaurant will react and how much they might miss Alta's previous dishes, but the chef said he needs to explore and create something new.

“I don’t want the box of soul food,” Corbin said. “You get a black chef, he cooks, he breeds and you put him in 'soul food.' “The industry does it, and your own community does it, and then when you try to play with different flavors and techniques within that cuisine, you get beaten up for it.”

The chef has always felt connected to food, whether initially through his family's cooking or through his new start in a professional kitchen. After being released from prison in 2014 for robbery, drug and weapons possession and arson charges, Corbin was unsure about his career path. Then, in 2016, he applied to be a chef at Locol, a community-oriented restaurant founded by Patterson and celebrity chef Roy Choi. Corbin excelled in the kitchen and as a manager, became the owner of the business and, along with Patterson, launched their entry into Alta.

Alta's reinvention also felt like a return to the restaurant's origins, where Corbin made original dishes to order — a process he said was robbed of him by a series of setbacks.

During the pandemic, Alta turned its adjacent cafe into a bottle shop and the restaurant began serving what Corbin described as safer cuisine, taking fewer risks to attract more customers. Strikes in the entertainment industry further hurt business, and Corbin said after the Eaton and Palisades fires, Alta sometimes only welcomed one or two customers at a time.

Corbin pared down both his menu and format, relying on steam tables to keep batches of fried chicken and other comfort foods at temperature rather than cooking to order. The staff introduced programs such as karaoke and trivia nights to attract customers, but Corbin felt that this only unsettled the restaurant's identity.

Corbin retired in February 2025 and briefly cooked in the Valle de Guadalupe Fauna, then traveled to Europe and explored a number of cuisines, including Italy, where he took pasta-making classes. He saved seeds to plant in LA. He took part in Padma Lakshmi's new cooking show America's Culinary Cup. With renewed energy, he went back to work earlier this year: He would close Alta and restart it, this time without the steam bowls and nightly programming.

“I got bored, I got frustrated, I felt trapped. It wasn't exciting anymore and so I left the restaurant,” Corbin said, adding, “It was no longer what I envisioned and what I wanted to represent myself, the community and my creative abilities. So I closed it.”

In late February, his staff canceled all existing reservations and began preparing for the new vision, which would be based on Corbin's years of culinary research searching for dishes and ingredients across continents. Since reopening, Corbin has been experimenting with more nuanced and sophisticated dishes: fish in Senegalese yassa sauce; bone marrow topped with pepper soup-inspired bacon jam and suyu seasoning; Charred cabbage with tahini and a kombu tamarind reduction and a harissa white miso glaze.

He followed African and Caribbean ingredients such as plantains back to Southeast Asia and peanuts to Mesoamerica, while also utilizing some of the flavors of those regions. Now he builds layers of flavor through what he calls “spice logic”: Which spices and flavors from different regions and cultures go well together and how do they evolve together, based on techniques like braising or simmering?

Bar director Madeline McQuillan has revamped the beverage program with spirits representatives from West Africa, Mexico and Asia, as well as cocktails inspired by produce and location like a sweet corn spin on a sour or the South Central Cola, made with rum, lime, sparkling water and a house-made cola syrup.

“Now the bar matches the energy in the kitchen,” Corbin said.

The design of the restaurant's woodwork, seating, lighting and cushions has been refreshed with more earth tones and deep pastels. Corbin was excited to show guests the new menu and also revived Alta's kitchen counter seating, which he had removed during Alta's era of steam cooking.

Alta's Tandem bottle shop is slated to reopen in early August, while Alta's brunch service — which could include some of its specialty items like fried chicken, albeit in new formats — is slated to return in late August.

For those still craving a taste of Alta's original flavors, Corbin and Patterson will continue their popular Alta Pantry bottled sauce line, which includes the popular, currently sold-out Fresno Chili Hot Sauce. Usually they can be purchased online and at local stores like Now Serving cookbook store. Some of Alta's new seasonings and sauces, like Corbin's lacto-fermented garlic powder or date syrup, may also make their way to Alta Pantry in the future.

Alta is located at 5359 W. Adams Blvd., Los Angeles and is open Tuesday through Sunday 5-10 o'clock