Laurel Hardware Restaurant Opening Tonight

The much anticipated Laurel Hardware restaurant is set to open tonight.

Eater LA reports that the new American cuisine restaurant will open for dinner on Thursday night and will be open for lunch on Friday.

Located at 7984 Santa Monica Boulevard (at Laurel Avenue), the 3,500 square-foot restaurant is going into an old hardware store location and is using a hardware store theme for its décor.

When the restaurant was , it sparked much controversy among area residents because of the lack of rear fire exits (there is no back alley on this block) and the chronic parking shortage in the area.

City zoning codes require the restaurant have 32 parking spaces (nine per 1,000 square feet). The restaurant submitted a plan to lease 19 off-site spaces two blocks away. Then Community Development Director Anne McIntosh approved the restaurant’s application despite it not being able to fulfill its parking requirements even using off site leases.

In recent weeks, several of the parking spaces on the street near the restaurant have become valet-only spaces after 6 p.m.