Hoist a Fork at Cork Dork

Owners Danny Amirian and Dan Margolis enjoy wine education in the dining tent, just outside the main dining room

Chef Danny enjoys building relationships with local farmers; Dan and his wife, Debbie Margolis, are both very involved in the restaurant. Photos courtesy of Cork Dork.

When Dan Margolis and Danny Amirian opened Cork Dork in 2020, it was a small wine bar catering to the local community. The limited kitchen produced dishes that accompanied a thoughtful selection of domestic and international wines and beer. The subsequent four years saw an evolution into a noteworthy neighborhood restaurant and full bar with a fresh and seasonal menu dedicated to supporting the staff in addition to serving guests. Unless you’re lucky enough to live nearby, it might be a trek seeking out this unpretentious but high-end restaurant three miles north of the 101 in Westlake Village. The vibe is special enough for a celebratory occasion, but casual enough that you could stop in for a bite after hitting the Pavilions a few doors down.

Chef Danny Amirian rotates at least one menu item daily, representing a wide breadth of regions and spanning decades of time. Danny’s cultural influence shines with Persian touches in signature dishes like the Crispy Cauliflower with yogurt, eggplant tapenade and crispy chickpeas; or Baba’s Chicken with couscous, harissa carrots, labneh, preserved lemon, golden raisins and walnuts.

Beyond his personal heritage, Danny’s travels lend seasonality to the menu. A trip to the Yucatan Peninsula inspired the Mexican flair of his summer menu in Hamachi served with leche de tigre, escabeche, tomato sorbet, jalapeño and cilantro; and the Mango Panna Cotta with lemon sorbet, coconut, pineapple gel, basil and coconut rice crispy (a cheeky reference to beloved fruit carts on the side of the road).

In discussing inspiration for his dishes, Danny mentions an upcoming trip to the Midwest and anticipates how dressing wild game and whole-animal butchery in Wisconsin might contribute to his fall menu. Use of local produce, meat and fish, along with masterful culinary technique unite these global and often nostalgic flavors. For an audience of regulars, swapping items and exploring regional cuisines means there is always a reason to come back.

Photo by Tami Chu

Alongside seasonal menu items, you’ll find suggested wine pairings from partner Dan Margolis. The wine selection is tightly curated, offering just enough variety to satisfy palates from multiple generations. One table may order both a bright Rhone varietal from the Central Coast and a big Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, ensuring everyone their preference.

Dan and his wife, Debbie Margolis, are both involved in the restaurant. “Dan is really the Cork Dork,” says Danny. You see his love of gadgets throughout. If you want to taste a wine off the “Holy Sh#t List” you don’t have to invest in a whole glass but can enjoy an affordable 2-ounce pour thanks to the Wine Station Dispensing System, which pulls precise amounts from bottles in a controlled environment and uses argon gas to preserve the remaining wine. If you’re blowing off steam with friends, hit the Moet & Chandon vending machine for a personal bottle of bubbles or rosé.

Dan and Danny have fun playing off each other and tease the tension between casual and fine-dining attitudes. Across from the wine vending machine hangs a large-scale painting by a local artist nodding to culinary legend Heston Blumenthal, but farther down the hall if you open the door to the Cork Dork “Executive Offices” you’ll find the water heater closet.

Chef Danny has always been interested in restaurant culture and expression. After working with his family on a kosher pizza restaurant in Agoura Hills, he attended culinary school at the Art Institute in Santa Monica and North Hollywood. He worked kitchens and front of house operations throughout Oxnard, Santa Monica, Malibu and other spots in LA, always commuting from the Conejo Valley.

Kitchen culture back then was notoriously toxic—unrelenting in its pace and adherence to extreme expectations. “Your reputation becomes everything,” says Danny. “So your standards and your way of enforcing them—because you’re young, you don’t know any better, you mimic what you’ve been taught, which is to just be mean and direct and yell all the time.”

Danny realized quickly that wasn’t working for him. “I wanted to be different from what I experienced,” he says. Over time, he changed his approach, “I’d rather be a mentor and create an environment for education and growth for the young chefs coming up.”

Learning is reciprocal in the kitchen at Cork Dork. Danny was recently surprised by one of his young staff’s use of hot honey. “I searched my entire life for a place to work in like this,” Danny says. He plays music in the kitchen and sets an R&D budget with which the staff can experiment.

“You need to put aside your ego and who you are as a person, humble yourself and kind of figure out what it is you want to do for the community,” Danny says. “That’s, to me, what’s more important.”