‘There it is’—But Still no Tea at Ayta Grill

Nearly two months after the Ayta Grill opened near the border of Highland Park and Mount Washington—with a little help from nunchuck-wielding Bruce Lee—the “teriyaki house and tea room” has yet to add any cha to its menu.

“We are going to serve tea—we just don’t know when,” says Helen Martinez, the eye-catching restaurant's cashier, taking her bright-red baseball cap off to pose for a photo for Highland Park-Mt. Washington Patch.

“Ayta” is Spanish slang for “There it is!”—and the chicken-, salmon- and steak-serving restaurant, with its stylish façade, has clearly gotten considerable media attention, starting with an upbeat review in Grub Street L.A. a week after the eatery opened on March 15.

“Mount Washington residents will eat this place up,” wrote a reviewer in the Eastsider L.A. blog late last month, praising Ayta’s “zero frills” menu, affordably priced at $4.50 to $8.99, and its extravagantly prepared fruity drinks.

And although most of Ayta’s customers are indeed from Mount Washington and Highland Park, according to Martinez, business hasn’t been as brisk as, shall we say, one of Bruce Lee’s perfectly executed roundhouse kicks in Enter The Dragon.

“Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad,” says Martinez of the restaurant’s business. “We haven’t sent out flyers yet.”

Perhaps some vigorous P.R.—not to mention the promised tea—will help bring a regular flow of customers to Ayta.