The books are overwhelming

Diego Cardoso, flown in from London's Rhubarb Hospitality, is running food and drink at Skywalker Grill inside the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Reservations opened and buried him.

“We've opened the books and it's been…overwhelming”

Seventeen years, three cities

George Lucas and Mellody Hobson spent $1 billion and nearly two decades getting this built. Chicago said no, San Francisco said no, and LA's Exposition Park finally said yes in 2017.

Rockwell, Schulz, and Star Wars

The Ma Yansong building opens this month with Norman Rockwell paintings, Peanuts comics, and pieces pulled from the Star Wars archive.

No ninety degree angles

Rockwell Group wrapped the room in swirling cherrywood, white onyx Corian, and Art Deco fabric on the chairs. Nothing in it meets at a right angle, echoing the building's curves.

Cinematography as a room

David Rockwell designed with framing, light, scale, and atmosphere, then set switch glass and Corian against visible handwork. It's the same tension that runs through Lucas's films.

“We wanted to create some of that same frisson in the restaurant”

One frame of Los Angeles

Turn the corner and a giant window swallows the city and Exposition Park. Lucas wanted it to read like a single frame of art. Lunch gets blue sky, sunset gets dusty pink.

“He really wanted this window much like the story in one frame of the art itself”

Booked into December

Hype for the museum spilled straight onto Resy. Most of the fall is gone, and the next table for two is December 2. Critics don't weigh in until the official opening around September 22.

“It's exploding at the moment”

A year on the bun

The menu riffs on Skywalker Ranch: chicken tenders with caviar ranch, lobster corn dogs, braised short ribs. The Wagyu comes from the ranch's own cattle, and Cardoso spent over a year picking the bread.

“It's going to be a staple, so we want it to be good”