Coucou brightens up brunch in West Hollywood.
France is clearly the culinary inspiration for many Los Angeles hot spots, with progressive restaurants like the Arts District’s Michelin-starred Camphor (which is taking its popular monthly steak frites night to Resorts World Las Vegas during a stacked week of dining events in June), West Hollywood’s Amour and the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel’s Shirley Brasserie reinterpreting classic dishes.
And one of LA’s most exciting new openings of 2024 is Burgette, talented chef Sean MacDonald’s sultry Parisian-style burger bistro in Santa Monica. Located next to sister restaurant Bar Monette, which debuted near the beach last year with some of the city’s best pizza and beautifully composed small plates, Burgette gets things started with cheese, charcuterie and a smart riff on classic haricot verts that features Thai flavors. Then there are excellent smashed wagyu burgers, including the showstopping La Burgette with Parisian sauce, pickles and cheddar as well as the decadent La Vivianne with tomato jam, raclette and bone marrow butter. (There’s also a salmon belly burger, a chicken cordon bleu burger and a fried maitake mushroom burger.)
Burgette's beef check with bone marrow is a lot more fun than a steak.
But the beefiest bistro bliss at Burgette is a hunk of tender, perfectly cooked beef cheek that comes with Bourguignon jus and bone marrow. With MacDonald in the kitchen, this gelatinous collagen-heavy cut becomes a textural marvel that makes your typical bistro steak seem boring. Pro tip: Save the sauce and dip your burger into it.
For dessert, there’s a no less over-the-top croissant filled with vanilla cream. The Valhrona chocolate sauce that’s poured on the croissant at your table is some kind of exclamation point. It’s a reminder that MacDonald is also a top-tier pastry chef who knows a few things about bistro fare and bistro flair.
Burgette is a Parisian-style burger bar in Santa Monica.
At the new outpost of Coucou in West Hollywood, weekend brunch has launched with freshly shucked oysters, merguez-laden mussels, buckwheat crepes (with ratatouille) and a “croque soigne” ham-and-cheese sandwich (with a sunny-side-up egg on top). You can enjoy steak frites or a generous order of rigatoni with Dungeness crab as you dine at a booth near the gleaming marble-topped bar. Or maybe linger outside with an aperitif on the lovely patio.
Get caviar with your rolled omelet if you want a baller bistro brunch experience. Whether you also get coffee, Champagne, an espresso martini and/or a soft-serve sundae really depends on what kind of day you’re looking to have.
Oysters and wine work nicely for brunch or dinner at Coucou.
This is a new oasis, near Uchi and Dan Tana’s, in a buzzing stretch of West Hollywood. Coucou, which opened its first location in Venice last year, is also a West Hollywood dinner-and-drinks destination, of course. Chef Jacob Wetherington (who previously cooked at Bouchon) has capitalized on the big kitchen he has in West Hollywood and added new dishes like albacore tuna tartare (with aleppo chili crisp) and a pizzette d’escargots, both of which are available for brunch and dinner. This patio should be a lot of fun as spring turns into summer.
