“Liberty, equality, fraternity” — the national motto of France — could also be applied to the journey of three local Frenchmen navigating the Downtown culinary scene over the last five years or so.
The adventure most recently culminated in the merger and move of L’Appart, the popular DTLA bistro run by chef Thierry Babet and partner Marc Moubarak, with Garcons de Café, Mathieu Giraud’s lively wine bar around the corner at Spring Arcade.
L’Appart moved into the vacant space next to Garcons de Café in January. The operations have combined forces to launch a formidable alloy of sensibilities, featuring authentic contemporary bistro fare with a mindfully curated wine selection. The conceptual mélange is comfortably informal and presented at reasonably accessible price points.
“We were both just missing each other,” Giraud said.
“I was missing good food and they were missing the wine program, so we just came together. That’s really what started it.”
L’Appart, which opened in DTLA on Sixth Street next to Cole’s in September 2019, represented the second iteration of Babet and Moubarak’s culinary collaboration. The pair opened their avant fine dining concept Air Food in Santa Monica in May 2017. The restaurant famously featured a curated artisanal water bar.
Notably, the two partners met over their mutual enthusiasm for vintage sneakers and the “hypebeast” online resale culture. Their collaborative future was forged at a major sneaker convention in Paris, at the Place de Republique in 2011. Inspired dining pop-ups ensued, based on Babet’s culinary experience as a chef in Paris and London.
Meanwhile, Giraud was pursuing a career in general management in LA, first with Joachim Splichal’s Patina Group and then at Ray Garcia’s Broken Spanish.
“I started as a floor manager with Patina in 2008,” Giraud said.
“It’s a big group, so I worked around at different restaurants. I was GM at Cafe Pinot, the Hollywood Bowl and the flagship. It was great. I learned so much from it. And then in 2018, I worked with chef Ray Garcia at his restaurant Broken Spanish. I was general manager there for almost three years.”
His management experience provided the platform to develop his love and connoisseurship of wine.
“Unfortunately, it’s very hard to get sommeliers,” Giraud said.
“Managers have to do it all. It’s no problem (for me). That’s the way I learned so much about making the right selections for whatever restaurant you have. So I had already started at Café Pinot, and then at Broken Spanish I learned a lot about Mexican wine.”
Giraud was also prepared and motivated to strike out on his own. Garcons de Café opened in 2016 under the original owners, Thomas Choulot and Sofian Ketfi. Giraud took over ownership and operation from them in November 2021.
“When I took over Garcons, it was a wine bar. The main focus was having a great wine selection,” he explained.
“But I was ready. I was ready but, to this day, I’m still learning every day about new wine, new wine destinations, and it really never ends, in terms of how much you can learn. It’s amazing. So, I curate the wine selections at the (new) restaurant.”
The inspiration for merging with L’Appart came from Giraud. Opportunity manifested when the pizzeria next door to the bar closed in July.
“I was very interested in somehow taking it over and making something with that space, because it’s twice the size of the bar,” Giraud said.
“It has a full kitchen with a beautiful pizza oven. There was something to be done with that, you know? So, I knew that Marc and Thierry also wanted to expand and do something else because the former (location of) L’Appart was much smaller. It was kind of limiting their way of working.
“We decided to go into business together, and it’s really just adjacent to the bar.”
In fact, the two spaces have now been joined. “It’s separated by a wall, but we made an opening, and you can now go from one space to the other. It’s one big restaurant.”
At the newly combined bistro and wine bar, a bar menu is available at 4 p.m., followed by the dinner menu at 6 p.m.
The bar menu includes house aperitifs and wine selections, including house concoctions like the Porto Tonico, white port and tonic water ($10/$13); the Lillet Fritz with Lillet rose’ and sparkling wine ($14); and the Adonis with Montanaro red vermouth, amontillado sherry and orange bitters ($14).
The selected wines offered by the glass range in price from $8 to $19 and are culled from France, Italy and California in a mindfully tight curation by Giraud.
The menu also includes a Czech lager and a Belgian trappist ale ($8/$9) and a hard cider from Oregon ($9).
Babet has devised an appropriately calibrated small-plate bar menu with warm olives with garlic and rosemary ($7); Burgundy snails (six for $14/12 for $22); eggplant “caviar” ($12); house-made terrine ($20); and a croque monsieur tartine with serrano ham ($18).
Open the dinner menu at 6 p.m. to access L’Appart’s fully authentic bistro fare. Appetizers include the snails and terrine from the bar menu as well as a classic onion and shallot soup ($13) with the option to add truffles for an additional $5; grilled octopus ($19); king prawn flambéed in cognac ($21); an endive salad with walnuts and raspberry dressing ($15); and a leek nest with poached egg and truffle ($18).
Five entrees notably include a 48-hour duck leg confit with parsnip mousseline ($28); line-caught sea bass in a watercress reduction and squash veloute ($33); and three-mushroom risotto ($30). Notably, Babet has put the former pizza oven to good use with five takes on classic tarte flambée ($20-$26) with gravlax salmon with arugula and pecorino; shredded black truffle with mozzarella and mushrooms; and an unusual Burgundy prep with snails and roasted potatoes.
The dinner menu features an expanded selection of wines by the glass or bottle, as well as beer and cider. There is a full bottle list that includes orange skin-contact wines, and a 30% discount for takeout bottles.
Giraud mused on the menu composition and inspiration.
“The food menu has a base of items that don’t really change but, depending on what’s available at the market and with fish and meat, chef Thierry will make some changes,” Giraud said.
“We love to work with fresh produce and exciting ways of cooking with them. We don’t want to be boring, using the same menu over and over. We want to stay exciting. We want to change it up and keep people interested in what we do.
“It’s a French bistro, honest food that we try to present here. We are really working hard on the recipes that show the true flavors of what bistro food tastes like nowadays. We try to keep the pricing reasonable. It’s really important to us in terms of wine and food, so it can be a destination where people don’t have to break the bank.”
The latter consideration is an important one as DTLA emerges from the pandemic. The local economy has been slow to restore with fewer office workers and tourists in the neighborhood.
Giraud spoke for his DTLA colleagues, “We have struggled. It’s still a problem bringing people to Downtown. We took a hit. We are trying to rebuild that trust.”
On that note, Giraud also hosts jazz nights from 8 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays. There are regular wine flight tastings, and the team will offer a Sunday brunch buffet beginning this month.
Giraud summed up the new venture neatly.
“We are a fun place to dine. We don’t have any pretensions,” Giraud said.
“We just want everyone to have a good time. Downtown is a great location. We hope to help by adding a new, exciting dining destination that people will love and hopefully come back.”