Ultra-seasonal, wildly inventive chef Matthew Biancaniello from Eat Your Drink is half Italian and half Greek and draws from both backgrounds—and so many more—when building cocktails and bites. He earned early acclaim at the bygone Library Bar in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel before hosting roving pop-ups across L.A.

The devastating 2018 Woolsey Fire closed his 12-seat Mon-Li tasting bar in Malibu right after it launched. The sudden loss briefly left him in a “psychological coma,” he says, but prepared him for another colossal challenge: COVID-19.