Beastie Boys’ Mike D’s New Job: Sommelier

The Beastie Boys‘ Michael “Mike D” Diamond has found his next gig curating the wine list at a new Los Angeles restaurant, Hearth & Hound, Bloomberg reports. The restaurant is the new project from Spotted Pig owner Ken Friedman and its acclaimed chef April Bloomfield. It’s expected to open September 22nd.

Diamond, an avid wine collector, will work with sommelier Taylor Parsons to select the wines for Hearth & Hound. “It’s going to be a fun list,” he said. “We are putting together a wine program that will get customers tasting things they might not taste. If you like California Syrah, I might point you towards a wine from another part of the world that’s better value. We’re going to pour half-bottles, so you can try different things.”

For those not well versed in the intricacies of the grape, Diamond promised that the wine list will be accessible. “If you want a glass of wine, you shouldn’t have to spend an hour figuring out what that wine is, what you’re going to drink,” he said. “The restaurant is in the middle of Hollywood. A lot of people will be using [Hearth & Hound] for work; a lot of people will use it to be social.”

Still, Diamond and Parsons are also compiling a list of rare vintage wines, though the musician preferred not to refer to that selection by its usual name, the reserve list. “It’s a list that digs deeper,” he said. “But a reserve list sounds full of shit. I’d rather say, it’s a ‘digging deeper in the crates’ list.”

The Hearth & Hound also boasts another notable connection to the music world, as it is located in the same space that used to house a British bar, Cat & Fiddle, which was a regular haunt for many musicians in Los Angeles. Prior to becoming a restaurateur, Friedman worked as a band manager and A&R rep and recalled seeing countless artists at the former pub.

“Every band would go to Cat & Fiddle,” he said. “Guns & Roses, Metallica. the Smiths, who I used to manage, would go there to get a proper pint. Liam Gallagher, Damon Albarn – I’d run into them all there.”

Along with joining the wine team at Hearth & Hound, Diamond has been working on a variety of projects, including hosting his own Beats 1 radio show for Apple Music, The Echo Chamber. He and fellow Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz are also working on a memoir about the band.