Description
CLOSED - Anisette looks as if it has always been here, absinthe bottles rising to Heaven behind the zinc bar and upper walls tinted nicotine yellow, like an awkwardly narrow space that has thrived since the belle epoque in spite of the fact that it was originally designed as a bank. Chef Alain Giraud has a background in French haute cuisine perhaps unmatched by Los Angeles chefs, including decades in Parisian three-stars, a long stint as the chef de cuisine at Citrus and a term as the founding chef at Bastide. But at Anisette, Giraud isn't presenting a modern interpretation of French cooking, a chef's fantasy of French cooking or riffs on the theme of French cooking - the brasserie serves regular French cooking as designed by an amazingly skilled French chef, steak-frites and onion soup and winey house terrines, prepared with superb California produce and served by Santa Monica waiters who occasionally seem practiced at French diffidence. The rotating list of daily specials includes such old-fashioned standards as lobster Thermidor and duck a l'orange, done superbly well. Desserts are generally things like floating island, chocolate mousse and profiteroles. One goes to Anisette not to experience the new and revolutionary, one goes to be fed. Nearby city lot parking on Second Street free for two hours. See full review.
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