Is Vedge Expanding To L.A.?

It’s certainly beginning to look that way. Owners Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby are in Los Angeles right now to check out a space with their investors, and I got Landau on the phone while they were driving over.

The most important news, I guess, is that nothing bad is going to happen to our own Vedge here. It’s going to be business as usual. As a matter of fact, according to Landau, the L.A. project is being pitched as a “carbon-copy” of the Philly original. Same concept, same design scheme, same influences.

Landau told me that he and Jacoby looked at several spaces around Philly before shifting their gaze to the opposite coast. “We even had a couple projects on the board,” he said. “We would’ve done our Osteria, you know? Like a little sister [to Vedge]. That’s what people do, right?” And, he told me, they might still do exactly that. Just not right now.

As for the L.A. project, Landau explained that they’ve been in talks with investors for about a year and that the time had come where they just had to get on a plane. “The project was going to stop if we didn’t get out here,” he explained. “It was at that point. They’re very serious about this. We’ve been talking about it for a long time.”

So this is, as they say, the big moment. The space they’re looking at is raw. It’s going to take a lot of work to get it ready. Vedge L.A. isn’t something that will happen overnight.

And, in the meantime, Landau is worried about splitting his time. “That’s my Achilles heel,” he told me–obsessing over his work, always being in the house and on the line. “I feel bad being away right now.”

But if everything goes according to plan, that’s something he’s going to have to get used to. Because Philly to L.A.? That’s one helluva commute.

We’ll have more details as soon as the day’s meetings are done. So keep your eye on this space.

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