“An Unsafe, Abusive, and Isolated Environment.” A Storm Gathers Around Buzzy LA Restaurant Horses

When reached for comment, Johnson responded with the following statement via her personal attorney, Rachel E. Juarez: 

“Last November, my client Liz Johnson made the extreme decision to seek protection for herself and her three dogs from her partner Will Aghajanian. Over a decade together, what began as a deep love for him had deteriorated into an unsafe, abusive, and isolated environment for her.

She chose to do this in silence and secrecy—fleeing her home without alerting anyone as to what she was doing. It is and has always been Ms. Johnson’s intention to maintain the privacy of this situation, and to get through this as quickly as possible.

What we are witnessing publicly play out is what Will has done behind closed doors for years.  Exercising control over Liz through humiliation and confusion. We otherwise will not comment on his actions and ask that you respect her privacy as she continues to heal.”

Horses opened in late 2021 to glowing reviews. A New York Times headline declared it “A Hollywood Hangout Where the Food Is Actually the Point”; last January, the LA Times called it “a new modern LA institution.” VF featured the restaurant in our annual Hollywood issue, citing the legacy of its building: Between 1934 and 2007 the space was home to the British pub Ye Coach & Horses, frequented by Richard Burton, Alfred Hitchcock, and Quentin Tarantino. Under Johnson and Aghajanian, celebrities from Will Ferrell to Chrissy Teigen dined at the restaurant; in late 2022, Jeff Bezos and Jay-Z were photographed there together on a typically closed Monday night. In meteoric time, Horses became the kind of hard-to-book table favored by a particular set of industry insiders, for which having a contact to text for a reservation garnered cache. The rumors and reported divorce filings have thus been met with tantamount, if morbid, interest. 

In a metatwist of one whisper, A24 supposedly secured the rights to an as-yet-unpublished feature about these reports. Untrue, according to a spokesperson for A24: “can confirm not us!” “This is an emergency episode,” said Jason Stewart, cohost of the “bicoastal elite” podcast How Long Gone, in Friday’s installment. “AI is going to replace us creatives,” he joked, alluding to the episode’s content. “I’m just kidding, it’s [about] Horses.”  

The couple’s rapid ascent in the food world had not been without controversy. In March 2020 the couple suddenly departed their posts as head chefs at Nashville’s acclaimed The Catbird Seat, which they had held for a year. “While it’s true the restaurant itself is defined as a chef incubator intended to develop young chefs and give them their own eventual restaurants, this stint seems curiously short, especially given the recent national spotlight,” Eater wrote at the time of their departure. Johnson, now age 32, and Aghajanian, 31, had been co-nominated for the James Beard Award for Rising Star Chef of the Year only a week before. (In Aghajanian’s complaint, his friend Sam Burchett alleged that Johnson physically abused Aghajanian at the restaurant. The Catbird Seat did not respond to VF’s questions by press time.) 

In August 2022, Eater reported that Ken Friedman had done the walkthrough of the Horses space with Johnson and Aghajanian. Friedman, in one of the restaurant industry’s earliest #MeToo-era shakeups, left the Spotted Pig following an investigation by New York’s attorney general that found he had sexually harassed 11 staff members. (Per the New York Times, Friedman agreed to pay $240,000 and a share of his profits to former employees.) Horses denied Friedman’s involvement in its business, but Friedman maintained that he held a twenty percent stake in the restaurant, telling Eater, “People know, the word’s out. Why should I hide it?”

Earlier last year, in April, the New York Times reported that Johnson and Aghajanian had tapped another controversial figure for their newest venture, Froggy’s, set to open in New York: Thomas Carter, the former Estela co-owner whose partner Ignacio Mattos bought him out of the restaurant following a report of toxic workplace behavior. Former employees alleged that he made comments about his genitals and was prone to calling various staff members, at various times, a “fucking retard.” (A statement to the Times approved by both Carter and Mattos confirmed his departure but did not comment on allegations.) Johnson told Eater in April 2022 that she had hired him “because we were seeking someone whose expertise would complement the vision for the project, and would help lighten the load from a business perspective,” but that “Thomas will not be present on the floor day-to-day.” This week, Carter confirmed to Eater that he is not “a managing partner” nor involved in the restaurant’s future plans.

On Wednesday night the restaurant posted a message to their Instagram account: “Will Aghajanian has been on a leave of absence from Horses as of November 2022, and since then he has not been involved in the day-to-day operations of the restaurant. Under the guidance of Chef Liz, our incredible front and back of house teams are working to continuously make Horses what she had always intended it to be – a place of joy and celebration. Horses has no further comments outside of this statement.”