Michael Lippman

So I enjoyed the cheeseburger here (only served at lunch) so much that, when my aunt came to town and wanted to take us “anywhere” for dinner, I jumped on the chance to go back to Comme Ca.   It was me, my wife, our two-year-old daughter, my brother, his pregnant wife, and my aunt’s L.A. friend – in reservations terms, that’s “six and a baby”.   My daughter, Daniella, has a 7:10 PM bedtime, so our reservation was for 5:30.  It’s always dicey bringing a 2-year-old into a nice restaurant, and the possibility of having to leave at any moment is always looming.  We’re the first ones here, and we’re seated at a round table in the center of the joint.  The design is a postmodern take on a Parisian brasserie with some L.A. nuances thrown in – like white plastic chairs. 

Okay.  First thing to note: we’re made to feel incredibly comfortable having brought a 2-year-old with us.  No one seems to mind AT ALL; in fact, the hostess insists she will play with Daniella as much as possible.  Our waitress is immediately sweet, funny, cool, and opinionated in a good way.  We order lots of stuff.  I ask her about the 2000 St. Emilion by the glass and she purrs.  A few of us order it and it’s delicious and only ten bucks.  One of the conceits of a brasserie is that it’s not that expensive.  It would be just like an L.A. restaurant to call itself a brasserie, and then be ridiculously expensive.  Not so Comme Ca, which is super cool. 

Food starts coming.  We start eating, and we continue drinking, ordering more glasses of wine at will.  I take a couple trips outside with Daniella, who says “Outside!”, and then as soon as we’re outside she says, “Inside!”  Everything we eat is good – flavorful, tasty, and unfussy.  The mac and cheese is great, and Daniella loves it.  The tart flambee is great.  The squid with cherry tomatoes is beautiful, the Brussels sprouts with bacon... yum.  The oysters are fine.  The coq au vin is fabulously rich and delicious.  The crispy skate is excellent. The paleron of beef bourguignon is fork tender, rich and exceptional. It seems like you just can’t go too wrong. 

Pretty soon, I notice that something has happened here.  The easiest way to describe it is that I have become … extremely happy.  All the cares of the world are somewhere else.  I’m a bit high from good food and good wine, my family’s around me, this restaurant feels like the place to be, and a pretty, funny waitress is chatting with me whenever she has a chance.  Oh, yeah, the place is now completely mobbed.  Every table is full and it’s three deep at the bar.  When did that happen?  Oh, and it’s loud, really loud.  The loudness relaxes me even more – it wouldn’t matter if my kid started screaming at the top of her lungs, no one would hear her over the din of Comme Ca.  And she’s stopped wanting to go outside.  She’s happy here, too.  I lean back in my chair, I can feel my face is flushed and I’m smiling like a fool.

We linger for a long time, tasting desserts (chocolate donuts are the best; my kid is entranced by a bowl of vanilla ice cream), and drinking coffee, way past Dani’s bed time.  Because of the noise, our table has splintered off into separate conversations.  My wife and I look at each other, and gaze at our kid delightedly; we don’t even need to talk.  Dani’s running around the restaurant, making friends, saying “comme ca”.  My wife says, “What a f-cking cool name for a restaurant, ‘Like That’ ”.  She says it in a hip-hop kinda way, and I get it. 

Yeah.  Like that.