Mohawk Bend opened last night to rave reviews, but…

We had been at the pre-opening festivities for families and friends (oh yes, and press!) for Mohawk Bend, the newly renovated movie theater-turned 230 seat restaurant in Echo Park. But we still really, really wanted to check it out again as it functioned as a truly open restaurant, so we dropped in last night for the grand opening of Mohawk Bend!

It was definitely exciting – all the blogs and news blogs and websites that write about Los Angeles food, news, and pretty much everything covered this opening. We’ve definitely been keeping close tabs since the Spacecraft walls were up, shielding us all from the amazing renovations going on inside. So of course we’ll go and check it out on opening night!

But I’m realizing now that I might be a little too old to show up at a grand opening of a HUGE Los Angeles project at 9:00 pm, without any dinner in my tummy. Hence the reason for the “but” in my headline – this wasn’t a doom-and-gloom moment for me and my future obsession with Mohawk Bend’s beers and cuisine whatsoever. But after putting our names on the list, and waiting 10 minutes at the bar for a beer, and realizing I had probably another 10 minutes to go before placing my order, I realized I could just not compete will all the opening day traffic.

And that’s not a bad thing – it was a huge success and I can’t even imagine how crazy it was for the kitchen and the front of the house staff to work that many people, to make them happy and put on a good first impression. I just happened to be a little more hungry than I realized (okay, we went to Masa and had a delicious caesar salad, my fave, and got to talk with Manny, a favorite Masa employee) – but this will just be a lesson to me and any other hungry and hungrily impatient future Mohawk Bend-goers out there: Perhaps go a little bit early? Leave the 9:00 pm crowd to the younger ducklings… or at least scope out a seat!

So now it’s day two of Mohawk Bend and here’s the new news that you should take note of before going (apart from going early…):

Reservations made prior to this announcement are being honored, but because last night was so crazzzy they are no longer accepting new reservations. Instead, as the Mohawk Bend Facebook page announced earlier today:

Last night’s opening was so very encouraging! We so are glad to be in the neighborhood, and want to be able to accomodate walk-ins each and every night. As a result, we have decided to put a hold on reservations for the time being. This does not meet we are booked; just that much of our seating is reserved for walk-ins. Hope to see you soon, and thanks for your patience!

The new Mohawk Bend website no longer says “coming soon,” thanks to Echo Park graphic designer Heather Perlato who designed the site. Launched just today, the new website has the full menu for both booze and food, so check it out!

All that said, we’ll be the old people at the end of the bar, on a weekday, once we punch out from work…

Need to catch up? Read about Mohawk Bend throughout the months.