yeah, with my wife our bill is typically about $150 for the two of us. No alcohol.
With our wine group, every dinner there is $220+ and i think that’s pretty damn over priced.
I guess it’s a matter of perspective. Ironically bestia and otium might be better values if you can get a table. Imo though republique is a perfect intersection of great service, relative ease of getting a reservation, great quality, and a nice wine list. It’s certainly not inexpensive but I’ve spent far more money for lower quality food in LA. If you want a very nice meal while spending less money with a reasonable corkage in a pretty (but not as sceney) space, try Spring.
I’m a bit of a geezer so prefer the atmosphere at Spring. I also like their food style and we get great service as my wife does wine biz with them
Some of the tables at Republique are not good, something it shares with Bestia. I don’t want to pay $400 for a meal for four and sit on a high bar table up against the window like I’ve had to do at Republique. When is the fad of architecturally snappy looking chairs that are not comfortable going be killed? Same issue at Bestia and some other trendy spots. I will not sit at a backless chair.
The menu at Republique is similar to Redbird in that they get you with the meat prices and make them inconvenient by doing large servings to share.
The meats there are very good but I tend not to order them. Usually We’ll get a vegetable dish, a steak tartare (best in LA IMO), pasta, seared foie, and dessert; that and wine is plenty. That’s about 75pp with corkage.
haven’t been to Republique for dinner but have been meaning to try it then. It’s been a while and things may have changed, but brunch there is a lot of fun, and maybe more affordable than dinner? Love the pastries in particular. When there was a thread last winter on panettone, I picked up a couple from Republique and they were great.
There was a nice article by Patrick Comiskey on the new sommelier at Republique, Maria Garcia:
speaking of their “off the list” wine menu. I was there for dinner late last year when the table next to me was talking to Taylor about their wine selections for the night. They had a few nice glasses of wine and he ended up offering them a bottle off the “off the list” menu. Ended up being almost $400 for the bottle and they were very unhappy.
yikes! that’s horrible. definitely does more damage than profit.
Brunch and breakfast are great but very different than dinner; you order at the counter and take a number and they’ll bring your order to the table.
Very curious what the wine was!
Went to Connie and Ted’s tonight, one of my favs; free corkage tues or $20 on other nights; popped an '15 Albert bichot vire Cleese which paired exceptionally well with oysters and grilled yellowtail
I don’t know sorry, i just overheard them complaining to Taylor about the price.
Wait so he just offered them a “special” bottle, opened & poured with no mention of price? I don’t care who’s at the table, that is an absurdly presumptive move on his part…
loved that place but last time (a month ago) the fish and chips had worms in it–still live and wiggly since the fish was undercooked. Fortunately I was the only one of four at the table who didn’t have fish and chips!
I like the wine program at Republique. Had a carafe (which worked out to half a bottle) of Dujac Fuees one of the first times we went and thought it was great they’d present a wine like that in such a format. It gets people trying different wines, instead of just having it sit on the shelf.
I’ve never found the fish and chips to be particularly good there.
Went to republique tonight; had beef tartare, cheeses, tart flambé, foie, dessert, and a nice bottle of morgon; about 100pp, really not bad including wine!
I think if i had a few appetizers my bill also wouldn’t be that high at republique 
Yeah, my thought was that Marshall Gelb and I would order twice that much food for the two of us 
I get what the new somm at Republique is saying as far as the potential gain of putting yourself in the somm’s hands. I rarely do it. Even when I do, the results are more often that I wish I hadn’t than those instances where it really worked out. I realize that it was a different somm, but if one came to me with a suggested wine at $400 without clearing that price with me, I’d be pissed too. I just don’t get a massive “off-the-list” inventory. It just creates the dynamic of having the somm as a necessary filter and the implication that they are giving one something special. It isn’t that hard to maintain and print a list in this tech age. I can see having 10% of inventory off-list, but the bulk should just be on a printed wine list.
You haven’t learned about the new trend in food, Ecosystem menu items? You get the main ingredient PLUS all of the naturally related precursors and by-products. I have a friend that went to a very high end LA place years back and had some ants in a fresh fruit dessert. She was told that that’s one of the risks when the restaurant does not over-wash the fruit seeking to preserve the natural favors.
It was a lot of food, we were quite full.
I thought Maria was very nice; we were interested in Beaujolais and she went through all the offerings they had on and off list in our price range and there wasn’t any miscommunication.