Foodies of LaLaLand Vie For Seats at Bouchon Beverly Hills Preview

       

         Left coast foodies will nurse bruised entitlements over whether they got invited to Bouchon Beverly Hills’ friends and family sitdown Sunday night and/or a mass walk-around tonight before Wednesday’s opening.  Even valet parking was free Sunday, a typical Thomas Keller droit de seigneur touch of elegance.  Keller and his stunning longtime inamorata, now fiancée,  Laura Cunngham, made the rounds.  I wish I could say who was there – tout LA, some Hollywood, I guess - slicing into the gigot d’agneau or saumon poêlé with French green lentils and matignon of root vegetables.  But I’m not up on the local who's who.

        The authentic touch of  tablecloths knotted around waiters' waists – that adorable knot – struck me as incredibly sexy.  And the stunning ankle straps on one table-hopping dame proved once and for all you don’t have to be a great beauty if your shoes are really sexy.

 

        The duplex indoor-outdoor 17,000 square foot bistro, like Keller’s other Bouchons in Napa and Las Vegas, was designed by Adam Tihany - gawjus - with soaring ceiling, Victorian globe sconces and Spanish tile floor, every detail down to the grommets overseen by the obsessive chef. Just up the street from Spago. Times blog this morning Keller is quoted musing about learning to fly, the better to cover his empire. 

         I always decline to fill out a report card at friends and family events, believing a restaurant critic should never be a consultant.  But for auld lang syne (and remembering how tough I was on Keller a thousand years ago in my New York review of him at Rakel), I jotted down some first night flaws, about $10,000 worth of critique in pre-meltdown consultation fees. 

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