Dinner for $1,500? People are lining up

Renowned restaurant Noma is planning an L.A. pop-up. Many want that reservation.

- LAURIE OCHOA

THE NOMA L.A. residency will be focused on Southern California ingredients.

AUDREY MA For Noma

Ever since chef René Redzepi announced that he is coming to Los Angeles to create a popup version of Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant named No. 1 in the world five times, food lovers across the world have reached out to ask how they can get reservations, even though the dates, location and cost were unknown.

On Monday morning Noma released an Instagram post with details about its Los Angeles residency, which will begin March 11 and run through June 26. By nightfall, more than 20,000 people had signed up for the chance to make a reservation at the popup by attaching the phrase “LA26” to the post.

Only a fraction of those people will get a reservation.

Just 42 guests will be served at each seating, four days a week, at a location in Silver Lake that will be revealed to those with a confirmed reservation (to protect the residential neighborhood surrounding the site).

And the cost? At $1,500, it's less than a Super Bowl ticket, which is expected to cost a minimum of $4,000, but more than almost every other restaurant in Los Angeles.

“I just sent $1,500 to my local food bank,” wrote one commenter on The Times’ website. “Thanks for reminding all of us what's really important these days.”

Redzepi, who doesn’t expect to make a profit on his Los Angeles ventures — he’s aiming only to break even — would likely agree with that sentiment. He says he didn’t come to Los Angeles solely to feed the elite.

“Los Angeles is a city you have to interact with,” he said during a recent phone call as he was walking along Sunset Boulevard. “If you just hide yourself on the top of a hill, you're not actually, in my opinion, being L.A.”