Duck into Bar Etoile along Western Avenue and find a gently lit wood-paneled dining room that buzzes, starting from a zinc counter encircling the center of the room. To the sides, packed tables toast to zingy glasses of Melon de Bourgogne while taking careful spoonfuls of Alpine-style cheese tarts fashioned into savory pie slices. Which Parisian arrondissement is this? Oh, it’s Melrose Hill, a Los Angeles neighborhood experiencing increasingly accelerating development with the openings of Corridor 109, Chainsaw, and Little Fish in recent months. It’s unclear if neighborhood locals or Angelenos from more far-flung areas are coming here in droves, but the energy is still palpable. Etoile presents a modern French bistro with heavy doses of inventive Los Angeles flair, and it works, though expect the tab to run about $100 a person, give or take a wine glass.
Groups of five or six oenophiles ready to pop open a couple of interesting bottles and fight over the last slices of bluefin tuna swimming in a beet leche de tigre. Date nights with the partner for those who can’t fly over to Paris on a whim.
A few dishes, like the lobster rillette and black cod with pil pil sauce, taste more salt-forward, so ask the server for a good wine to counter the salinity.
Dine like a Parisian at Bar Etoile, a new French restaurant in Melrose Hill. The restaurant comes from a team of first-time restaurateurs: Jill Bernheime Bernheimer (Domaine LA), Julian Kurland (Native, the Rose), and chef Travis Hayden (Rustic Canyon, Voodoo Vin). Bar Etoile serves a bar menu comprised of small bites like bread and butter and spiced nuts made to pair with a glass of wine or a cocktail, as well as a full menu of larger dishes. Hayden’s dinner menu follows a clear European-inspired throughline with dishes like steak frites, roast chicken, and ricotta gnocchi. — Rebecca Roland, associate editor