Anisette Brasserie (www.anisettebrasserie.com)
I drove by the 3rd Street promenade in Santa Monica the other day and saw billboards for a new shopping center. Hooray! I was complaining just the other day about the utter lack of BCBG outlets and American Girl creepy-doll stores in southern California. Thank god I can soon go to the promenade for all my sanitized shopping needs instead of the 32,000 other purveyors of mono-cultural trinkets. Thank you, Santa Monica development board! You are true American patriots.
When I finished hypocritically lambasting consumerism, I walked over to Anisette Brasserie. The decor is classic brasserie: nice tiled floors, well lit red-hued space and French-accented waiters. Thomas Keller of French Laundry fame recently mused that if a guy can only do one dish right, it should be a roasted chicken. I tested this theory on the chicken here, and was disappointed. The roasted poulet at Bouchon is noticeably juicier and flavorful.
However, a lot of other items are worth the trip to the promenade. They have great bread and a nice gruyere-encrusted onion soup. The foie gras pate is also quite good. Considering that most of the eateries in close proximity to the promenade really suck, Anisette Brasserie is essentially the decent looking girl in your systems engineering class. Not Bar Rafaeli by any means, but situationally the hottest girl on the block. - H. Lee
Anisette Brasserie, 225 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401, (310) 395-3200
