While I generally try to keep Dead Week as non-committal as possible, the opportunity to close out 2022 in grand fashion with dinner at Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura proved too enticing to resist. Joining me for the evening was my homie Thien Ho, who appropriately carried a Gucci clutch for the occasion.

The restaurant, which is located on the third floor of the Gucci store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, opened a month before the pandemic lockdowns in 2020. It is one of four Gucci Osterias that chef Massimo Bottura (who owns and operates three-Michelin-starred Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy) opened inside select Gucci stores around the world. The original restaurant is in Florence, Italy, and the two other outlets are in Tokyo, Japan and Seoul, Korea.

While the four restaurants share a name, founder, and Italian DNA, each location incorporates local flavors and sensibilities to provide a sense of place. The selection of clothes and accessories at a Gucci store in Seoul probably isn’t too different from the one in LA, but the menus for each Osteria are strikingly different. Teokbokki with chestnut, porcini, and pine mushrooms, anyone?

Behind Beverly Hills’s stoves is chef Mattia Agazzi, sous chef Vanessa Chiu, and pastry chef Tamara Rigo. All three worked at Gucci Osteria in Florence before relocating to Los Angeles. Together, with oversight from Massimo Bottura, the trio dreamed up a fine dining experience that’s playful and precise — a unique balance of creativity and technique befitting of its swanky environs.

While lunchtime features an a la carte menu, dinner is a prix fixe affair with three different menus to choose from. We experienced the Under the Palms menu ($220) with wine pairings ($195).