Come and Gather: Wilde’s Brings British Pub Culture to Los Feliz

“Best friends since we were kids.”

Alongside the title of lifelong friends, Natasha Price and Tatiana Ettensberger are adding a new shared honor: restaurant owners. Launched in late October of last year, Wilde’s is a British-forward restaurant nestled in Los Feliz, an indisputable favorite neighborhood in Los Angeles among locals, transplants, and celebrities. Anchored between the avenues of Vermont and Hillhurst, Wilde’s encapsulates the neighborhood charm of Los Feliz.

In the alluring district, members of the community recognize one another while waiting in line for groceries—and no not merely because a shopper may be a star of a hit TV show. In a community that values social connections, a day and night dining establishment run by lifelong friends feels inevitable. Wilde’s is a corner spot dedicated to exchanging personal news over glasses of red wine and a meat pie for two. And as an accompaniment, crispy edged chips, to share of course—no need to fret about double-dipping in the aioli, you’re friends after all.

Co-owners Natasha and Tatiana not only understand one another, they recognize the intricacies of the restaurant business. Since age 18, Natasha has been weaving in and out of professional kitchens. With most of her family hailing from or residing in the UK, Natasha lends the British-inspired menu to Wilde’s. Tatiana, the previous general manager and wine buyer at Cafe Tristé in LA’s Chinatown, proves to be the perfect complement. She drafts the curated natural wine list and manages the amiable staff. Natasha and Tatiana also brought in Sarah Durning as the chef de cuisine. Sarah’s background in both butchery and pastry made her an apt choice for running a British-forward kitchen.

A week after its opening, I took a seat at a dark wooden four-top with Natasha, while Tatiana gracefully flitted back and forth between Wilde’s kitchen and dining area. The restaurant is rarely lit by artificial light. Rather, lace curtains, vintage sconces, and the occasional animal portrait accent the space. The Los Angeles sun spills through the windows and the red-trimmed glass entrance. The entry’s logo casts a shadow on the ground, greeting customers eager for Welsh rarebit. With nightfall come the white tablecloths and candles, preserving the warmth and natural glow of the city and the splayed dishes.

“The space influenced the concept,” Natasha shared on the vision for Wilde’s. “We had our own ideas, but the community and the corner spot really helped weave it [all together] too.” Pub culture largely influenced Wilde’s foundation. Its neighborhood focus reflects the universality that local pubs champion in the UK. “It’s this place where the young, the old, everyone, goes and finishes their day. It's not really about the drinking per se. It's more about stopping by and hanging out.”

However, ‘stopping by’ might not be such a swift act. Since opening day, customers have piled up on the sidewalk from dawn to dusk, donning sunglasses or clutching umbrellas—nuisance weather has no impact on their dinner plans. Primarily a walk-in restaurant, the finite number of seats available for reservation fill up weeks in advance (since opening they have steadily taken more reservations and serve the full menu at their counter to help increase walk-in capacity). For those craving an autumnal spin on the Eton Mess, they better be fast with their thumbs.

“Once that kind of initial excitement eventually fades, as it will—nothing on us, that's just what happens—we really hope that we can be a spot where you can come and sit at the counter for a snack and drink, or have dinner with your family and friends; really have that same type of energy that a pub has,” Natasha shared.

The launch of Wilde’s coincided with an article from The New York Times published earlier in the year, “Is British Food Still a Joke?” The story speaks to the resurgence of traditional British cuisine in various London restaurants, as these restaurants attempt to debunk the ‘beige is bland’ accusations.

Natasha reasoned “There's certainly two camps. It stems from a place of people being less familiar, tying it to the stereotype, versus someone who's read about British food or been there. To me, British food is simple, rustic, and local. It feels akin to California, and the way in which California cuisine came out of here with the amazing produce.”

The staunch embrace of traditional British cuisine extends beyond London. Natasha's own knowledge of British cuisine broadened with visits to her aunt’s home in Midhurst, a market town in southeast England. In Midhurst and countless other small communities “ingredient-driven” remains central to cooking in restaurants, pubs, and family homes.

Following this tenet, the menu at Wilde’s naturally will change and adapt. Natasha recalled a modification made that past weekend. “We get in the whole ducks, I break them down,” she started. “We use the breasts for a main, and then the legs I braise and make it into this rillette that's served as an appetizer. The process takes a long time—the duck breast needs to be aged. We ran out of duck breasts on Friday night. Saturday rolls around and we're down a menu item. We're not just going to buy duck breasts,” Natasha explains. “We're still going to honor the morals that have driven us to this place. So that was replaced by a grilled skate dish that felt akin to a protein with a sauce. That sort of change will happen often because we're trying to be conscious about how we're buying for the menu.”

A popular restaurant recommendation site posted a glowing review of Wilde’s on their Instagram page following the opening. The commentator described the steelhead crudo and chicory salad as “bright and earthy” and named the crispy, battered sea bass as “the highlight of the night.” However, dozens of other comments on the post told a different story, insinuating the dishes pictured weren't “real British food.”

Unfazed by the assumptions, Natasha offered, "To be fair, if you're in England and you say ‘American food' they're going to say, ‘pizza and burgers.’ In the U.S. there's so many regional varieties: the South, the Northeast, etcetera. People love a label. We're influenced by England; we're influenced by that rustic fare. At the same time, we're influenced by what's at the farmer's market, what we can get here, and it's going to be a marriage of those two things. We hope that in this space people see that and don't hold us to what they might think their stereotype is about British food.”

A dual-zone wine refrigerator silently hums in the back of the restaurant. Wilde’s is rewriting the American perception of what a beverage list should look like at a British dining establishment. Natasha noted, “One of my favorite spots in England, The Eagle, is where the term 'gastropub' comes from. It's just this pub in East London. It's super old with a small menu, incredibly seasonal—it's a natural wine bar. They started in the 90s before natural wine was really a term. There's a stereotype that people in England are only drinking beer. I just don't think that's really true.”

Once the conversation shifted to the wine program Natasha immediately summoned Tatiana from the kitchen. “British food is really nourishing,” Tatiana began to share. “To me, it's food that benefits from wine. Restaurants that I revere in London also have these amazing natural wine programs: Cafe Deco, Hector's.”

Tatiana reasoned, “If it's difficult to categorize your restaurant online on Resy, I think that's a good thing.” The idea prompted a memory of Natasha’s. “I remember when I was making a job posting. I called Tatiana and asked, ‘Are we casual-elevated, or are we casual dining, or are we upscale dining? I have no clue.’”

A restaurant’s first year is full of pivots, additions, and subtractions. Led by three individuals who aim high and execute accordingly, the Wilde’s of 2025 is a bite of what’s to come, or rather, half a swine…

“We are working towards a whole hog program,” Natasha detailed of a new undertaking of Sarah’s. “Right now we're getting in half a hog. We use various other parts of the animal for different menu items.”

Reminiscent of many respected British chefs, including Fergus Henderson, who pioneered tip-to-tail butchery, Sarah aimed for the Wilde’s kitchen to eventually utilize the entirety of the hog. It’s equal parts passion project, culinary challenge, and sustainable endeavor, greatly inspired by her time at Gwen, a Michelin-starred steakhouse and butcher shop located in Hollywood.

Patrons may be pleased to know that, as of January 2026, Wilde’s is indeed now working with a whole hog.

The hog contributes to the hand-held sausage rolls, a rarity on Los Angeles menus—which can be said for the majority of Wilde’s daytime fare. Bakewell tarts, lightly dusted with powdered sugar, tea cakes, and scones smeared-to-preference with clotted cream and bramble jam: and that’s just the beginning. On the horizon? Warming porridge, egg soldiers and maybe even a proposal.

Natasha admitted, “We talk about the ways in which we would hide the ring, which are all insane, like we'll put it in a sausage roll. I feel emotional thinking about it, the idea that it could become a spot where anyone feels like this is the space to do something personal and exciting. Whether it be a birthday, a graduation dinner, or a promotion. For me, the places that I've wanted those types of celebrations to happen are chosen because that space brings me a certain feeling that is not like anywhere else.”

Built by those who value the merits of comfort in all its forms—friendship, fried potato and otherwise—Wilde’s is already capturing that feeling.