Horses, the scandal-plagued Hollywood restaurant accused of cat torture by its former owner, announced it will reopen on the Sunset Strip.
The celebrity magnet, which drew Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Jeff Bezos and Will Ferrell during its four-year run, closed in December 2025 after posting a sign blaming structural damage from heavy rain. It never reopened. Now the brasserie is plotting its return at a new location, according to a post on its Instagram page.
“Coming back to a new home on the Sunset Strip,” the restaurant’s Instagram page read.
The comeback attempt follows one of the most explosive scandals to hit Los Angeles dining in years. In May 2023, founding chef-owners Liz Johnson and Will Aghajanian became locked in a public divorce battle that spilled into court filings with shocking allegations. Johnson, 40, accused Aghajanian of domestic assault and of torturing and killing the couple’s pet cats. Aghajanian fired back with his own lawsuit, denying the cat torture claims and alleging Johnson had been physically abusive toward him and their dogs.
Both chefs eventually exited the business entirely and settled their legal dispute, leaving the restaurant in limbo.
Chef Brittany Ha, who had co-chef-managed the kitchen with her husband Lee Pallerino, stepped into leadership. She kept Horses running through the reputational fallout and declining private event revenue until the December 2025 closure.
The shutdown came with financial blows beyond the rain damage. Horses Holdings LLC, the restaurant’s parent company, was hit with nearly $530,000 in California state tax liens across two filings that same month.
Before the scandal, Horses had become one of Los Angeles’s most elusive reservations after opening in 2021 inside a historic brick-and-mortar space on Sunset Boulevard. The outlet praised its menu, a mash-up of decadent French brasserie fare and seasonal California cuisine — a rarity in a city where trendy celebrity hotspots often treat food as secondary to scene.
The restaurant’s original closure was announced with a sign on its door citing temporary repairs and building maintenance due to structural issues from heavy rain. That temporary shutdown became permanent.
The new location announcement offers no timeline or address, leaving questions about whether the brand can outrun its association with the allegations that dominated tabloid coverage in 2023. The cat torture accusations in particular generated widespread outrage online and in entertainment media, given the restaurant’s A-list clientele.
Neither Johnson nor Aghajanian has publicly commented on the reopening.
Horses is expected to reveal additional details about its Sunset Strip location in the coming weeks.