In the year of the California-French bistro, chef Marcus Jernmark’s Marée has emerged as a top contender, hovering over sister tasting menu restaurant Lielle, which earned a Michelin star mere months after first opening in February. Marée strives to be more casual (the final bill may beg to differ, however), with an approachable wine list — no cocktails here — and polished French dishes like mussels “gratin,” grilled Caledonian prawn cocktail, and grilled pork chop dressed in herbaceous Cafe de Paris sauce. The fairly spartan room, which used to be beloved Peruvian restaurant Picca and then the fancy Michelin-starred Manzke, has soaring ceilings that contribute to an increasingly rowdy scene as the evening progresses. Warmth comes from the weathered hand-drawn menus on the wall mirrors, as well as the open kitchen that churns out grilled hamburgers au poivre — about 25 per night, to create just the right amount of fervor around them. Marée may be the freshest bistro in Los Angeles, but it already feels lived in.
The hamburger au poivre is listed as an addendum on the menu and can be ordered earlier in the night. The $42 price tag is eye-watering, but remember that the kitchen makes every element from scratch, including the bun. High-end beef from top ranches goes into the patty, which is encrusted with coarse black pepper, then reinforced by a thin pool of au poivre sauce on the bottom of the plate. Inside, crisp maitake mushrooms and onion rings take the texture to the max. Fries don’t come with that price, which means including their $16 price, the after-tax-and-tip price for a burger and fries runs $70-plus. If you want something truly special, you gotta pay sometimes, and I would argue it’s worth it.
People who think L.A. doesn’t have good French food and need to be convinced that this might be better than a lot of bistros in Paris; burger fiends who need to try the latest and greatest; fans of Bicyclette, Walter and Margarita Manzke’s bistro, which used to be downstairs in the Lielle space.
Meant to be a casual complement to the more ceremonious Lielle, Marée evokes a classic Parisian bistro with fine dining touches, a varied sauce game worthy of Escoffier’s best, and a standout burger that should silence doubters. At the end of the day, after wine, tax, and tip, you’ll end up spending around the same as Lielle, which doesn’t really make it a weekly meal for most budgets. But sometimes the splurge is more about choosing your adventure than surrendering to the chef, which is the wonderful game you get from Marée.