The front of house team were the embodiment of hospitality, making us feel comfortable and special, and happy to explain the aspects of the menu that felt unfamiliar. The dining room layout has a few nooks and corners but instead of feeling cramped, it is cosy and intimate.
Duck into Bar Etoile along Western Avenue and find a gently lit wood-paneled dining room that buzzes, starting from a zinc counter encircling the center of the room. To the sides, packed tables toast to zingy glasses of Melon de Bourgogne while taking careful spoonfuls of Alpine-style cheese tarts fashioned into savory pie slices. Which Parisian arrondissement is this? Oh, it's Melrose Hill, a Los Angeles neighborhood experiencing increasingly accelerating development with the openings of Corridor 109, Chainsaw, and Little Fish in recent months.
A French bistro that has been operating in Covent Garden since the Second World War is selling its interior decorations ahead of a refurbishment. The restaurant was founded in 1943 by two brothers and sold to the establishment's maitre'd Alain Lhermitte in 1973. Mon Plaisir is described as "London's oldest family-run French restaurant". A selection of the venue's French interior decorations, including advertising signage, art posters, clocks and cockerel will be up for auction from 28 December.
"I love French food - I love the history of cuisine itself," Tomaska says. "I think that's why I've always latched on to it throughout my career. France's ingredients are very relatable to here in the Midwest."
Having opened in 1986, it is one of the enduring icons of New York's bistros--now being mimicked by newcomers like Chez Nous, Le Veau d'Or and Chez Fifi. It has a crowd as faithful and returning as any restaurant's in New York, and the clientele dresses well (more on that later) and seems to have, in Scott Fitzgerald's words, "voices full of money." The faithful call it "Bilbo," as they once called '21' Club "the Numbers" and Le Cirque "the Circus."