Those who remember Trois Mec will be delighted to hear that the beloved LA legend is back for a final farewell tour. When chef Ludo Lefebvre opened the 24-seat Trois Mec in a repurposed Rafallo’s Pizza in a nondescript Hollywood strip mall in 2013, it was a revolutionary restaurant for Los Angeles.
“At the time, there were no set-menu-only restaurants,” Lefebvre says. “You had places like Providence, but they had a la carte menus in addition to tasting menus. Plus, we had a ticketing system, which was unheard of back then, even though plenty of restaurants now do it.”
There were no substitutions at Trois Mec—located next door to his popular bistro Petit Trois—allowing Lefebvre to experiment with dishes that might include chile-infused madeleines or the chef’s take on chirashi. The restaurant went on to earn a MICHELIN Star and a glowing review from the late, legendary Los Angeles Times critic Jonathan Gold, who praised Lefebvre’s creative license and unparalleled cooking.
“The chefs would serve the food, so the idea was that you were eating at my house,” Lefebvre says. He was forced to shutter the restaurant in 2020 due to the pandemic, and Trois Mec never got the farewell it deserved. Luckily for us all, Lefebvre is finally getting to just that with a two-week-only pop-up sendoff.
Read on for everything you need to know about the Trois Mec farewell pop-up, and secure your ticket on OpenTable.
Get down to brass tacks
When: The pop-up will take place over seven nights on Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10 and Tuesday, May 13 to Saturday, May 17.
Where: The original Trois Mec space at 716 N. Highland Ave.
How much: Tickets are $300 per person and only 40 seats are available each night.
Lefebvre’s wife Krissy encouraged him to bring back the restaurant as a way to bookend one of LA’s most iconic restaurants. “Because we closed during the pandemic, we never had a formal goodbye,” Lefebvre says. “People loved the restaurant. The pop-up is a way to say goodbye.”
What you’ll get to eat
Lefebvre is still finalizing the menu but he plans to bring back some Trois Mec classics and debut some new dishes at the same time.
It is of course still a tasting menu, and you’ll get four snacks, four savory courses, one dessert, and one takeaway item. You can opt for a vegetarian menu, too. Master Sommelier Dustin Wilson (of Verve Wine) is putting together a wine pairing ($125) and a non-alcoholic pairing ($95) to go with Lefebvre’s food.
The chef is excited to bring the restaurant back, if only for a short time, and plans to open something permanent in the space, although he’s not sure what it will be.
“I love Petit Trois, but Trois Mec is a step up for me,” Lefebvre says. “I was trained in MICHELIN-Starred kitchens. I love frou frou, elegant, soignée, and that’s what Trois Mec is.”
Karen Palmer is a pizza- and pasta-obsessed food writer based in Los Angeles. She is the former editorial director of Tasting Table, and her work has appeared in Eater, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, and many other publications. Follow her on Instagram at @karenlpalmer.
