Fraiche v. Abode: 'Highlights for Children' is My Zagat Guide

This is a tale of two restaurants: Abode in Santa Monica and Fraiche in Culver City.

Both new. Both embrace this year's version of blackened redfish: local/seasonal/sustainable/yadda. And together, they are Goofus and Gallant.

Goofus I booked a 7:30 Abode reservation through Open Table. "You're early," said the hostess, who insisted I was "Bob Yarris" and that my reservation was for 8 pm. And then: "Are you the first to arrive?" (I had to tell her I honestly had no idea.) Thoroughly confused, she sent me to the bar, where my husband (already at the table) rescued me.

Gallant At 9 pm, the restaurant is packed; we don't have a reservation. Any suggestions? "Your best bet is the bar," she said. "I think you can grab a table right there." There was; we did.

Goofus Ambiance provided by the weird new-age thump-thump you might hear at Cabana Club, only not turned up as loud. Generation X Muzak.

Gallant With French doors that open to Culver Blvd. and wood floors, hard to hear what the music was beyond identifiable drum beats and occasional twangy guitars. Indie rock is probably another brand of generational Muzak, but at least I liked the playlist.

Goofus Abode's owners spent real money with the high-backed leather chairs, modern-revival chandeliers, the stone and weathered-wood walls. However, the net effect is anxiety, as if the restaurant is trying to convince that you wouldn't rather have driven to Koi.

Gallant Money was spent in the service of being open, not clubby; The dining room, kitchen, bar and patio flow into each other. You'd never confuse it with anywhere in West Hollywood.

Goofus Beef tartare was beautiful, a quarter-cup timbale of just-chopped beef (not too fine) with capers and minced onion, topped with a raw quail egg still in its shell. But man, it's annoying. Extracting the egg is a messy production and it resists mixing in the beef, especially when the plate is otherwise occupied by a small dish of "mustard frost" (semi-savory mustard ice cream) and "horseradish foam" that resembles a jumbo marshmallow. Lamb two ways (rare rack/tagine) is excellent; my entree, not so much.

Gallant Roasted beet salad with homemade ricotta is killer. (Prediction: Homemade ricotta is the new burrata.) So is a corn soup with clams and basil. And, because we'd already eaten at Abode, that's where our meal ended. However, friends who have already made repeat visits have a list of recommendations for me.

Goofus Abode is available for booking any time, any day and have already begun to invoke the 1,000-point reservation at Open Table.

Gallant If you want to eat at Fraiche tomorrow, you're out of luck. Tuesday, they have something available at 8:30.

However, there is one arena where both fall short: The names. "Abode" begs for dyslexia; Fraiche could seem pretentious if the food wasn't so good.

Comments

[sarah]

i COULD not agree with this post more.

abode was pretty. like so pretty, i didn't want to eat.

fraiche was so goos, food and atmosphere, we lingered there for over two and a half hours. (don't worry, i don't think there was a res after us)

[erin]

Haven't been to Abode, but I agree about Fraiche--next time try the rabbit tortelli if it's still on the menu. My one quibble-the TV in the bar. It's my pet peeve.

[Jill]

Just ate at Fraiche last night. I agree the food was top notch...but, we had some issues with the wine. Great list, reasonably priced, so what's the issue? Couldn't find or didn't have two of the bottles we ordered. At least instead of upselling us they did offer us a more expensive bottle at the price of the bottles we ordered. But they need a better system for organizing their wine (and also, it was a bit too warm, but that's getting nit-picky).

[perry]

Ate at Fraiche last week and had an experince identical to Jill's ... wonderful food, wines were fine but they had only 1 of 3 bottles ordered. They did offer a "better" wine for the same price, but it's a bit irritating and the waiter made quite a point of the upgrade. Also, the white Burg was too warm (above cellar temp) and, while the waiter offered to cool the wine, he continued to pour rather large portions for a wine he was going to chill a bit ... bad form. He was, however, quite helpful in creating a "tasting menu" for the table where we shared a number of plates, family style. The courses were large enough for everyone to get more than a taste and we were able to taste through a lot of the menu. We will certainly return ... the food justifies the effort to get reservations. Kudos to Jason.