A spotlight from Venice · Abbot Kinney
Felix Trattoria
The Abbot Kinney pasta laboratorio where every noodle is rolled by hand
I've never been one to dabble. I'm either one hundred percent in or one hundred percent out.
— Evan Funke, Chef & Owner
Two years in Bologna
In 2015, Evan Funke closed his previous restaurant Bucato in Culver City. He didn't open another one right away. Instead, he moved to Bologna and apprenticed under Maestra Alessandra Spisni at La Vecchia Scuola Bolognese — the sfoglina school where regional Italian pasta is still taught by hand, shape by shape, to whoever will do the work.
Two years of it. No shortcuts, no press. When he came back, he opened Felix.
The room is built around the pasta
Walk into Felix and the first thing you see is the pasta laboratorio — a glass-walled room at the center of the dining floor where the sfogline roll dough by hand all night. This isn't a display piece. This is the restaurant.
Funke has said machine rolling "chokes the life out of" pasta. The Felix menu is arranged as a map of Italy, and the kitchen refuses to serve a shape it can't produce to that standard. If a noodle isn't on the menu, it's because they haven't earned it yet.
If a noodle isn't on the menu, it's because they haven't earned it yet.
A 1929 Craftsman on Abbot Kinney
Felix landed on Abbot Kinney at the exact moment Venice was shifting from bohemian outpost into design-shop corridor. It became the block's fine-dining anchor without ever adopting fine-dining posture — the room is a 1929 Craftsman bungalow, renovated by Wendy Haworth, warm-lit and low-ceilinged, full of regulars.
When Netflix's Chef's Table: Noodles put the pasta room on television, the building became a Venice landmark.
Order this
The dishes that made Felix Trattoria
Tonnarelli cacio e pepe
Hand-cut square-strand pasta with Pecorino Romano and cracked black pepper. Felix's benchmark.
Rigatoni all'Amatriciana
Guanciale and pomodoro at Funke's insisted-upon 50/50 fat-to-sauce ratio. The Roman classic, defended.
Sfincione
Palermitan-style focaccia — thick, tomatoey, cheese-crumbled. The room's sleeper hit.
Good to know
Felix Trattoria, answered
How do you get into Felix Trattoria?
Reservations open on Resy 30 days in advance. The 5:30pm and 9:30pm slots move slower than prime time — that's the local hack.
What should a first-timer order at Felix?
One primo per person, sfincione for the table, and something antipasto to start. Skip the temptation to over-order pastas — they come out fast and hot, and cold pasta at Felix is a sin against Evan personally.
Who is Evan Funke and where did he learn to make pasta?
Evan Funke is the chef-owner of Felix Trattoria. He closed his previous restaurant Bucato in 2015, then spent two years apprenticing under Maestra Alessandra Spisni at La Vecchia Scuola Bolognese in Emilia-Romagna. He opened Felix on Abbot Kinney in 2017.