That Verset is about retail these days and a bunch of others such as the Levet are only 2x retail.Overnoy Trousseau is next to impossible to find at retail these days. I didn’t know Rollin had a plain PV 1er Cru, if it’s really the ‘Les Vergelesses’ or ‘Iles des Vergelesses’ that’s about 3x which is not unheard of. Amusing to see Maison Ilan there.
They have Ilan at Trois Mec? If I had to guess a restaurant in LA that would, it probably would be there.
It’s funny Charlie how some of your service reports are different than mine. I’ve brought multiple bottles to Bucato without any issue. We got different attention at some restaurants because of Mary’s business tie, but we weren’t known at Bucato.
I have a suggestion for anyone. We have all sorts of lower end wine around. So we very often bring a low end but interesting bottle and just give it to the staff to drink. I even make a point of occasionally grabbing some stuff at auction that’s $10-15 and fits the bill. It definitely smooths waters, not always, but across a whole year of giving 20 bottles away it’s a net win.
The list shown in the photo is way out of date. Plenty of Rosenthal, Massale, Dressner imported wines on the Trois Mec list in the $70 (or less)-$175 range. I have no problem finding something that I like under $100 and their pairings are well conceived and are also something like $70/person. I’ve not done their pairings; rather buying a bottle each of white and red wine from the list for four diners. Last time, we drank a Chablis and a Texier Cote Rotie for under $300, all-in.
Pretty nice pad, but not over-the-top. I’d say $2.8 mil. Yes, they all made many millions on the La Brea sale, but I’ve heard she basically lost it all in the Madoff deal.
I find the combo of the advanced tickets at Trois Mec, mediocre list, and no byo incredibly off-putting. They can do whatever they want of course, but I don’t go. Perhaps their list has changed but in the times I’ve seen copies of their list or pairings it just felt like the wine was definitely not going to be commensurate in quality with the meal that I’d have chased by paying a decent sum months in advance.
Personally, I am of the income level where I cannot justify eating at excellent restaurants and drinking their excellent wines five times a month. I can eat at excellent restaurants and pay to drink their low end $60 wines. Or I can eat their excellent food and drink excellent wine by byobing at least one bottle of what would cost me $200 on the list. At a place like Trois Mec i end up drinking wine that I feel is not commensurate with the extensiveness of the meal, the quality, and the effort to pay months in advance. I’ll go once to try the food, but their formula doesn’t work for me. I guess I don’t wish failure upon anyone but I surely don’t want such collector unfriendliness to perpetuate. Thankfully that is not the norm in LA, though things are getting tougher.
John,
Not months in advance, a month or so in advance. $75/person plus tax and tip = $100, all-in. The list is commensurate with the food if one likes the types of wines imported by Selection Massale, Rosenthal, and Louis-Dressner, which are wines that are often on my table. And the wines on the list pair well with the cooking. The cooking and wine program at Trois Mec is more like the micro/modern restaurants in Paris (Le Chateaubriand, Septime, Le Servan, Clown Bar, Saturne, Les Déserteurs, Philou, Frenchie, Vivant, Le Baratin, et al) than it is like any other restaurant in LA that I’ve visited. And very fairly priced for the quality of the cooking. Much better, in my opinion, than any of the Ludo pop-ups.
YMMV. But, I think a lot of the criticism that circulates around about Trois Mec is from people that haven’t been and isn’t always accurate.
Of course, and I see why you might like it. It doesn’t appeal to me and there are a lot of people in each camp. I know his food, I’ve had it a lot going back to the L’orangerie days. Sometimes it is contrived, and I prefer his skills used in a more straight ahead fashion. But I don’t think I would have a complaint about the $75 meal at all. It’s the other details that I don’t have to have gone to understand. Whether it be a month or two month, I personally do not want to go through the hassle of setting up an account logging in at a a certain time and paying in advance. I never decide where I am going to eat in LA more than a week in advance if it is not an offline. Hell, I more often not decide the day of or day before and that includes fine dining and meals with friends. Ask Marshall about texting me as to where we’re going three hours before the meal.
We change our plans a lot depending on being spent, working late, or getting invited to events. So I just don’t want to get tied in. I find their rationale for the ticket flawed. As with every other popular restaurant in town, if I cancel outside of 24 hours they are not going to have an empty table. I am not willing to assume the burden of reselling my dinner ticket should I decide to do something else a week prior.
On the wine front, I believe that you have slightly different tastes than I. I’ve seen multiple versions of their list and it just is not a list I like. I’m perfectly willing to admit that I like wines that many people don’t like, and Both my wife and I pair wines a little differently than some. I like to drink wine better than I do at home when I go out, though that is obviously difficult considering mark-up. Most of our non-quickie dinners out are with friends so I consider it more of an event. I also think that, while I know little of your spending habits, the Kaplan tax return has a significantly higher AGI than the Gonzales tax return. I see bottles on their list that I feel like hit the sweet spot of what I would bring elsewhere, of pop for on a special occasion, but they are $120+ each. I think you and I both dine with guys like Marshall and the wines we drink at dinners are usually $175+ on lists, and a lot of the time reds aged more than 7-8 years aren’t even present.
My own philosophy is that unless a restaurant has a very deep list, including aged wine, at less than average
restaurant mark-up, then they should allow some form of byo. It doesn’t have to be free and it doesn’t have to be unlimited. Their line of , "we have a crafted wine list so no byob " falls flat on me because PERSONALLY I don’t love the pricing or the depth of selection. That’s not to say that another diner doesn’t love it. Places like Sotto and Bestia have lists that I have seen others rave about and that are geographically correct, but they don’t appeal to me. To me not allowing any corkage is just a way to increase the revenue from wine drinkers which is fine, but as the standard byo argument goes, what about someone who just has water? They should raise the prices on the meal and loosen the wine program.
As I said, I hope everyone else I town is discouraged from the same policies, and my wife makes a living selling wine to restaurants. Last time I looked their bistro took no cash and added an auto 18% gratuity. Neither is a killer but to me it’s just irritating. I’m not a stiff, but want to tip what I want. They also go the opposite route and take only walk-ins, but they won’t have a phone to tell anyone what the approximate wait is. They make enough money to have someone pick up the phone like every other restaurant. Honestly it seems like they make up gimmicks just for the hell of it to create cache.
have been to shunji a few times on my last trips and loved it (both lunch and dinner). what other sushi places on west side should i also try?
loved trois mec - can’t wait to try petit trois next week.
No added gratuity to the bistro when I went last week. But that space is tiny, it’s all stools. If it were busy I probably wouldn’t eat there.
Going to trois mec this week, I agree with all your statements on BYOB with the restaurant. My friend had tickets, can’t go and offered to me for free. My moral standards get shattered when free is offered 
Mori Sushi is good (about $200 all in without alcohol for omakase). Tsujita’s new sushi place is supposedly really good but I’ve never tried it. I also love n/naka in Culver City, it’s more kaseki style but they add some sushi but it’s one of the more delightful dining experiences in LA.
How does one say ‘Ho’ in Chinese?!
Good to hear they dropped the auto gratuity thing, it was definitely in play early on.
I can’t believe I’ve yet to go to N/naka with it being near the top of my list for so long. For some strange reason, though she likes Japanese food especially raw, Mary isn’t motivated.
I am not the biggest sushi fiend and prefer a raw & cooked combo meal, but Mori and Zo seem pretty good to me. Anyone been to nishimura in WeHo?
This may have something to do with that (from the Maison Ludo web site):
MAISON LUDO IS A WINE BORN FROM FRIENDSHIP AND FAMILY.
Ludo Lefebvre, a Frenchman living in California, partnered up with Ray Walker, a Californian living and making wine Ludo’s home town of Burgund. Together they created Maison Ludo in Ludo’s Grandmother’s cellar, producing its first vintage, 2013 Chablis Premier Cru, Vaulorent.
This is truly Vin de la Cave de ma Grand-Mere.
thanks fu!
You CA people are spoiled with BYO.
No problemo. There is so much good sushi in west la. Hard to go wrong with a rec, just depends on how much money you want to spend
didn’t want to like it but had a really good dinner at Trois Mec. The wine list is stupid high priced, the “wine pairing” was like a 1oz pour for $75 for 6 wines (suckers!). By the glass was ok $20 for a pretty decent pour of a nice bourgogne ;X. But the food was good, presentation/service, I really liked the environment too.
Would go again
So what did you do for wine Ho?
As I said I would certainly go, but it will probably happen as it did for you, when someone else goes through the pre-arrangement process. But did you feel like the wine program was appreciable? As in, were the pairings good in selection and value? Almost every serious wine drinker I know that has gone there has commented that the pairing route is not a good option. Was the “well-crafted list” received as such by you as far as good bottles at reasonable prices? If neither is true then the no byo policy, as compared to most other restaurants that allow it, certainly is an additional disadvantage to the diner. The food, scene, and food price may well make it a good experience, but the wine program to me is a detraction. Charge every diner three dollars more and charge me $30 corkage, even with a two bottle limit. Make me buy one bottle to bring one. Anything but the strict no byo rule that so few places employ. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that a place like La Botte didn’t make it.
I normally wouldn’t get any wine (they also don’t do cocktails) but Jason Berry (on the board and a friend) sold some wine to them and it was on the BTG selection, so i had a nice big pour to support the cause.
The wine program is poor imho. The best wine they had on the wine pairing was a 2012 Ganon St Joseph. At $75 for 6 wines at 1-1.5oz a pour you’re paying an incredibly steep price. So to re-iterate, you have to be a fool to do the wine pairing, especially since they short pour like thye were splitting a bottle among 15 people at an offline 
.
I thought the list had some nice wines, but at OUTRAGEOUS markups. I’m talking steakhouse in vegas would look at the markups and say “hmm that’s kinda high”. 2011 Roulot Bourgogne blanc for $150, which is about 4x. There was another decent white burg that I saw… normal retail is about $120 for $800. But, I’ve also seen that they have decent options when my friends have dined before where the pricing is your typical 2x markup, I guess it just matters when you go. I only did a cursory glance at the winelist so maybe there are some that are decent value, but definitely nothing under 2x retail
But, I think just to try once, it’s worth the experience. Wine isn’t an essential or necessary part of my meal when I’m out with Kathy (in fact I would say it is never part of the meal) so I can enjoy a restaurant with bad wine lists/no corkage allowed. In that vein, the restaurant has a great environment, I loved the music playing (hip hop!), the food was really good, service was good, pacing was spot on. I also think $ wise, it’s a good value for the food you get.
There is a certain aspect a lot of the diners are trying to get Ludo’s attention and kiss his ass as he works right up next to the bar seating (where we sat) and there are celebs that dine in the “secret” area that are constantly posing for photos, but that’s kinda part of the charm for some people I guess. They want to “experience” ludo. I’ve had dinner/drank wine with the guy twice now and other than a friendly head nod, I didn’t interact with him much, so one can certainly avoid it if they don’t like that “scene”. But his food is precise, the presentation is well done, so it’s fine for me.
I think Charlie’s observation that the wine list changes frequently at Trois Mec is accurate. I believe they buy older vintage wine from private parties (including customers) and current vintages from small ‘natural’ wine importer/distributors, some of whom I mentioned above. The somm asked if I was interested in selling them some wine… The last time I went, we drank a Luneau-Papin Muscadet that had some age on it for something around $70 and a La Tache St Joseph for a few dollars more, both of which I own. Similarly, I was surprised how much I liked the cooking and service the first time I went (also as someone’s guest) and have been back a few times since. I’ve never ordered the pairings, but have purchased wines by the glass and the pours were not skimpy.
La Botte, RIP, changed its corkage policy after a year or so to allow byo, frequently without charge. I was sorry to see it go.
I used to go to a small local spot on Westwood and Little Santa Monica called Sushi Masu. Fantastic spot.
had omakase at tsujita on monday and it was out of this world. great fish, some cooked dishes and A5 miyazaki to end. and they’re open on monday.