Republique

We did it!

We sat upstairs horizontal to the rail, overlooking the floor. Moody lighting. Romantic. Very nice table.

East India Spritz & House Old-fashioned


Ingredients are a little fuzzy (cognac, fruit juices, spices, sparkling wine) and you know an old-fashioned. I don’t know about the previous bartender, mix-master but I’d probably agree with @Chowseeker1999. These were solid, but what they were was strong… Yeehaw!

Butternut Squash Soup w/Hazelnut Oil, Black Pepper


Oh! Republique! :heart:

Smoked Eel Beignets, Herb Horseradish Purée


These aren’t exactly beignets, a little oilier, more like a round fritter, but they are f-ing delicious. Creamy insides and smoked eel, like bacon if bacon were eel, plus that purée… :blush:

Big Eye Tuna Tartare - Imperial Kaluga Caviar, Smoked Tomato, Toasted Baguette


Again with the delicate smoke. This time in the tomato and letting the ocean take care of seasoning the seafood. Dolloped on a crunchy little toast. Lovely!

Baguette, Normandy Butter, Crunchy Salt


We had two orders. :blush: We had to. What else were we going to use to sop up the sauce in our next dish?..

Beef Short Rib, Black Trumpet Mushrooms, Farro, English Peas, Roasted Baby Carrots


Maybe the peas could have been cooked a smidge longer, but I mean really… this was :kissing_closed_eyes:.

Double Espresso Big Scoop of Foam

Warm Dark Chocolate Cake, Hazelnut, Banana Caramel


Just no. It’s a bad picture, yes… but does that look good? Especially having replaced the Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake! Yes @Chowseeker1999, yes! I mean, look at this dark & milk chocolate lover’s dream below. :angry: Look at it!


It was something about wanting to do a more unusual chocolate dessert… apparently against the employees’ desperate pleas to reconsider. :grin: It wasn’t bad. But what is unusual about an uninspiring, more dark chocolate than cake cake, except for the grayish, brown sauce poured into the dish at your table? :roll_eyes: But! This does not make me :heart: Republique any less. Just bring back the Salted Carmel Chocolate Cake and all will be forgotten.

… I had Wine & Cheese. :wink:


Blurry photo, but a nice, healthy, half glass of light chablis - a good compliment that neither enhanced nor took away from this creamy, fudge-y, nutty, mildly tart, medium bloomy cheese…

Jasper Hill Farms ‘Oma’ (Cow, Vermont) w/Rustic, Nutty, Dried Fruit Bread, Honey & Persimmon Spread


We were aware of the great pasta situation. The Rigatoni Bolognese my sweetheart would love is only for lunch, and that fancy Ruffle Shirt Pasta was on the menu but with crab not lobster. “We buy whatever’s fresh.” Amen. I love crab but lobster is my girl, so. Another time. Those dishes and the Chicken Pot Pie (poor man’s duck a la presse) on the lunch menu are goals to look forward to.

I like how there isn’t loud music competing with loud people or the usual acoustic problems. It’s nice and loud in the restroom though. My husband dragged me in there to hear Joy Division. And you know what else is great? Being the last people in L.A. (we’re talkin’ bougie people in L.A.) to go to Republique means we got to discover a fantastic new restaurant!

Let the walking begin. :footprints: Lyfted there, walked home.

Happy February!

14 Likes

We’ll do that next time.

Hi @TheCookie,

Woo hoo! You finally made it to Republique. :blush: Glad you had a good time. Yah, compared to what they used to serve, we (sadly) just skip the cocktails there now. They lost the entire staff and this new staff is not so good with the drinks.

The new Smoked Eel Beignets sound fantastic! I can’t wait to try those next time we’re there.

Love their Housemade Baguette and the Beef Short Ribs. Glad you liked those as well. :slight_smile:

Definitely try their Pastas next time (more to look forward to), and sad that they removed their Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake this time. It was their most popular Dessert, so I’d imagine they’ll rotate it back in at some point.

1 Like

Glad you finally made it.

I need that baguette in my life. Probably my favorite in the city. It used to be free upon request for like the first year or two. That was awesome.

1 Like

I’ve officially become my grandma, Doodah. Taking bread home from restaurants. They kept asking if we wanted more bread & butter and I figured it was an upsale, like the cocktails. Since we had those short ribs coming we said “Why not?” And asked if we didn’t finish could we take it home? I was making spaghetti & meatballs the next day. She said “Sure!” and packed it up nicely. But when I looked at the bill we were only charged once, so… :relaxed:

3 Likes

congratulations, glad you made it.
image

Good call holding out for the lobster, the ruffle shirts with crab is good but doesn’t come close to the greatness of the lobster.

Pro tip: you get free baguette refills with your butter so ask for a fresh loaf before getting your butter boxed up.

7 Likes

Is there a similar trophy for “Last Person in LA Who Hasn’t Been to Gjelina/Gjusta/Gjanything”?

'Cuz I’m your huckleberry…

5 Likes

Me! Haven’t been. Westside of the world is harder for me to get to…no friends over there…no one can afford it.

3 Likes

I haven’t been to Gjusta either and neither have I been to Republique for dinner…

2 Likes

Going to Republique for dinner on Saturday. First time for dinner. Bringing the kids so thinking about
Bread and butter
Short ribs
Mafaldine with lobster
Some salad maybe the Thao Farms arugala
smoked eel beignets look good
Still think we need 1 more dish. Recommendations?

2 Likes

Cauliflower

Get the eclairs

1 Like

i would skip the mafaldine if they don’t have it with lobster
eclairs
eggs on toast
octopus salad
bucatini
agnolotti

1 Like

Thanks. Seems like that is the consensus on the malfadine.
Wish they had the rigatoni bolognese too @TheCookie. My kids would love that.
Trying to balance between being a glutton ordering too many dishes and finding enough things my kids will eat. I think between bread and short ribs they will be covered.

I might toss the salad (not literally) and add the eclairs. We can get good salad at lots of places.

1 Like

Probably not the best QPR on this dish but I love it and order it every time.

1 Like

Wait. You have left over butter?

2 Likes

When dining for two I think one pat of butter is more than enough (we’ve taken butter home twice). I always have to stop myself from eating two baguettes prior to the meal actually starting.

2 Likes

Breaking my fast after partially cleaning out the garage this morning. :muscle:


This is the second bin of lemons the guy has to squeeze one half at a time by hand. Oui, chef. :flushed:

6 Likes

Clever, as usual @PorkyBelly! I told the young server I hadn’t been there since it was Campanile. She stared and blinked.

It’s true. My last time was closing week. We took our cousin, a young chef, who’s typically cynical and ready to not like stuff… aka chef. We were greeted warmly, relaxed, ordered, he looked around and said “This is exactly the restaurant I dream of having”. It wasn’t a celebration, it wasn’t a wake, it was a reminiscence. All kinds of people were there and Mark Peel was walking around the restaurant not with defeat but with a glow like “Yep, we did good and did it for a long time…”

P.S. Okay, now I understand what she was saying about packing the bread @PorkyBelly. She said a couple of times that she was giving us two halves to take home with our butter. “Uh, okay, sure.” This is how crazy restaurant pricing is now. I assumed we’d be charged for another order of bread, but that would be ridiculous. And I will definitely ask for fresh next time.

1 Like

I’m shocked. Shocked I tell Ya’!”