Bar Fortuna Opens in Santa Monica With Pasta and an Opera-Playing 1917 Victrola

Crudo e Nudo chef Brian Bornemann's Italian cocktail and wine bar takes over the old Vamos Vamos space at 2917 Main St.

The directions on Bar Fortuna's website: find the yellow flag with the Roman goddess it's named for, and follow the Italian opera playing on a 1917 Victrola. That's how the new Italian cocktail and wine bar in Santa Monica's Ocean Park points people to its door.

It opened Wednesday, Oct. 21, Eater LA reported, and pasta and Negronis lead the pitch. It's the newest project from Brian Bornemann, a Santa Monica native whose seafood and natural wine bar, Crudo e Nudo, opened in 2021 and sits a block away.

Eater calls Bornemann the chef and owner. Before the opening, Forbes reported that his longtime sous chef, Jose Morales, was expected to serve as chef de cuisine, according to Palisades News.

The pasta got a test run first. In the same Forbes account, Bornemann teamed up with chef Tyler Wells for a preview dinner at Betsy in Altadena, and one of the trial plates was handmade pasta with lamb ragù.

Around the pasta, the menu Forbes described leans on produce from the farmers market. Drinks run to Italian-style cocktails, plus a wine list put together by J.D. Plotnick, a wine specialist.

The bar fills 2917 Main St., the former Vamos Vamos. What Now Los Angeles spotted it in July in a state liquor license filing, and Bornemann's team declined to tell that outlet anything more at the time.

That puts one chef's crudo and his handmade pasta a block apart. Reservations run 5 to 9:30 p.m. through the website, and walk-ins are taken from noon to 3:30 p.m. and after 9:30.

Source: Bar Fortuna's website, barfortuna.com, retrieved October 21, 2026. Other sources: palisadesnews.com, whatnow.com.