First Look: Anisette

Jonathan Gold, like everyone else, had high expectations for Anisette Brasserie, and for his first look, everything's as it should be from the rare steak frites "with flesh the color of ripe raspberries" to the towering plateaus to even the duck l'orange: "The restaurant is new, the demand for seats is high, and the service continues from breakfast through late dinner. It may take a little time for the service to settle down. But to paraphrase something Calvin Trillin wrote a few years ago in Gourmet, Anisette isn’t serving a modern interpretation of French cooking, a chef’s fantasy of French cooking, or riffs on the theme of French cooking — it’s French cooking as designed by an amazingly skilled French chef. And we’re lucky that it is in Los Angeles." [LAW]