James Beard award winning chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo are the owners of Joint Ventures Restaurant Group, which includes animal, Son of a Gun, Jon & Vinny’s Fairfax, Jon & Vinny’s Brentwood, Trois Mec, Petit Trois, Petit Trois le Valley and Kismet. The duo has been credited with innovating and changing the dining scene in Los Angeles through their roster of critically acclaimed restaurants.
Their partnership began over a decade ago when they met in culinary school at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. While at school, they worked for Michelle Bernstein at The Strand and Mark’s Place by Mark Militell. After graduation, they traveled west and worked at The Wildflower in Vail, CO. In 2002, they landed in Los Angeles and worked at Chadwick for Benjamin Ford and Govind Armstrong, which would inspire them to launch their initial catering company, Carmelized Productions.
Carmelized Productions was a complete success but Shook and Dotolo aspired for more. In the spring of 2008, they opened animal followed by Son of a Gun in 2011. These two progressive restaurants put them on the map as culinary all stars in Los Angeles. Two years later, Shook and Dotolo partnered with French chef Ludo Lefebvre, and together they opened the highly-acclaimed Trois Mec. The success of Trois Mec inspired the trio to open Petit Trois next door in 2014. Each restaurant concept reflects a different stage of life for Shook & Dotolo. In 2015, each with kids, they set out to create a neighborhood joint where they could enjoy meals with their families. They opened Jon & Vinny’s, an all-day Italian American diner with a casual and welcoming vibe. In tandem with Jon & Vinny’s, they partnered with Helen Johannesen and opened Helen’s, a wine shop that focuses on naturally-driven and organically farmed labels with small production. In 2017, inspired by Middle Eastern flavors, they opened Kismet with chef duo Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson.
Their latest restaurant concepts include Petit Trois le Valley in Sherman Oaks, which opened in April 2018. Their second location of Jon & Vinny’s opened in Brentwood January of this year.