Petit Trois, Los Angeles

What happens when you apply four-star precision to the most classic and comforting cuisine on the planet? Behold, Ludo Lefebvre's ode to the bistro. #BAhot10
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Eva Kolenko

From my seat, I swear I can see the Eiffel Tower. There are half-drunk bottles of Burgundy on the bar and classic French dishes like steak au poivre, escargots, and jambon chablisienne on the menu. The s’il vous plaîts and mercis are flying. But I’m not in Paris. I’m in a strip mall in Hollywood—next door to a place called Yum Yum Donuts. And that Eiffel Tower view? Bof.I’m looking out at a 76 gas station. Still, I feel transported.

Such is the power of Gallic chef Ludo Lefebvre’s sardine-size (just 22 counter seats) love letter to Parisian bistros. There’s marble on the bar, mirrors on the walls, and globe lights hanging from the ceiling; he’s added French hip-hop and a list of cocktails heavy on the pastis. The only thing missing is Gauloise smoke—though even Paris has banned smoking in restaurants.

And the food? It’s a greatest hits of bistro standards executed at a level that’s nearly impossible to find anymore—even in Paris. The sole meunière is textbook Escoffier: tender fish, quality butter, flawless technique. The onion soup arrives with a molten roof of Gruyère and Emmenthal cheeses that is the taste of decadence. And if you’re able to resist asking for more of the crackly baguette to dunk into the garlicky butter pooling around the escargots, I’d like to check your pulse. The trick to Lefebvre’s food, as executed by chef de cuisine Sydney Hunter, is that there is no trick. It’s ego-less cooking by a chef working with his heart as much as his head.

Vive la France! Vive Petit Trois!

More photos of Petit Trois? Mais oui:

About PT's Bread & Butter

“Petit Trois is successful because of the bread. Period,” Ludo Lefebvre declares. Take a look around the restaurant and you see what he’s talking about: No diner’s hand is more than a few inches away from a hunk of perfectly burnished baguette, ready to mop up all manner of irresistible buttery things. But just a few months before the bistro was ready, the chef was still without a suitable baguette. “I didn’t think I could open,” he says. “But then I found Colleen.” The Colleen he speaks of in reverential tones is Colleen Delee, the 49-year-old self-taught baker who cranks out something like 375 perfect baguettes every week for Petit Trois…in her Beverly Hills apartment. (Yes, the health department approves.) Delee worked as a legal secretary for 30 years before trying her hand at bread baking, and found she had a knack. “I was just sick of buying bad bread,” she laughs. “Maybe I’m a savant or something, but it worked from day one.” She had just quit her job to pursue baking full-time (using her dual KitchenAid home ovens) when Lefebvre sampled her bread at the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, and the rest is history. “I’ve never had a baguette like hers in America,” the chef says dreamily. “I don’t know how she does it, but she saved my life. I owe her so much. Without her, I would not have a bistro.”—Amiel Stanek

Get the Recipes:

Sole Meunière with Rice Pilaf
Petit Trois's French Onion Soup
Frisée-Lardon Salad
Dark-Chocolate Mousse


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