Three weeks ago, L.A. Grocery & Café (LAGC) opened its doors in the up-and-coming Melrose Hill neighborhood of Los Angeles where real estate developer Zach Lasry has been curating a new creative class of tenants to build out his own campus of galleries, eateries, and apartments. The 6k sqft grocery store was formerly home to Produce For Less Market up until two years ago, when Lasry connected with restaurateurs Caitlin Sullivan and Theresa Ruzumna (Honey Hi, Mozza, Homestate) in search of operators for the shuttered storefront. Lasry purchased the lot for $4.8mm in September 2020 along with over a dozen other buildings. At the time, the neighborhood was considered part of Koreatown, mostly largely occupied by furniture stores and Class B strip malls with the exception of CloudKitchens’ second Los Angeles warehouse that was purchased two years prior. Slowly but surely, Melrose Hill has begun taking on a new identity thanks to hip tenants like David Zwirner Gallery, Ètra, Cafe Telegrama, and Ggiata. Now, Ruzumna and Sullivan have co-founded LAGC with the goal of creating a full-shop grocery outlet for the area, which is conveniently nestled smack dab in the middle between esteemed neighborhoods of West Hollywood, Silver Lake, Larchmont, and Hollywood Hills.