Table Talk | Hinoki & the Bird in Los Angeles

Dylan + Jeni

The first thing you notice upon entering the new Los Angeles restaurant Hinoki & the Bird is the hinoki, a Japanese cedar wood that lines the walls and perfumes the air with a crisp, citrusy bouquet. Veneer-thin sheets of it — set on fire to infuse black cod filets with their smoke — waft like incense as the plates cross the room, sending curious noses skyward in their wake.

Hinoki, it turns out, is something of a fixation for David Myers, the L.A. food-world luminary behind the French brasserie Comme Ça and the late, Michelin-starred Sona. Myers has spent a great deal of time in Tokyo, where he oversees five restaurants (a namesake cafe and four Sola patisserie outposts); it was there that he fell in love with the aromatic wood used for everything from bathtub cladding to rice-ball wrappers. (His favorite fragrance to wear: Hinoki, by Comme des Garçons and Monocle.) “It’s cleansing, refreshing and calming,” he says.