We did it!
We sat upstairs horizontal to the rail, overlooking the floor. Moody lighting. Romantic. Very nice table.
East India Spritz & House Old-fashioned
Ingredients are a little fuzzy (cognac, fruit juices, spices, sparkling wine) and you know an old-fashioned. I don’t know about the previous bartender, mix-master but I’d probably agree with @Chowseeker1999. These were solid, but what they were was strong… Yeehaw!
Butternut Squash Soup w/Hazelnut Oil, Black Pepper
Oh! Republique!
Smoked Eel Beignets, Herb Horseradish Purée
These aren’t exactly beignets, a little oilier, more like a round fritter, but they are f-ing delicious. Creamy insides and smoked eel, like bacon if bacon were eel, plus that purée…
Big Eye Tuna Tartare - Imperial Kaluga Caviar, Smoked Tomato, Toasted Baguette
Again with the delicate smoke. This time in the tomato and letting the ocean take care of seasoning the seafood. Dolloped on a crunchy little toast. Lovely!
Baguette, Normandy Butter, Crunchy Salt
We had two orders.
We had to. What else were we going to use to sop up the sauce in our next dish?..
Beef Short Rib, Black Trumpet Mushrooms, Farro, English Peas, Roasted Baby Carrots
Maybe the peas could have been cooked a smidge longer, but I mean really… this was
.
Double Espresso Big Scoop of Foam
Warm Dark Chocolate Cake, Hazelnut, Banana Caramel
Just no. It’s a bad picture, yes… but does that look good? Especially having replaced the Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake! Yes @Chowseeker1999, yes! I mean, look at this dark & milk chocolate lover’s dream below.
Look at it!
It was something about wanting to do a more unusual chocolate dessert… apparently against the employees’ desperate pleas to reconsider.
It wasn’t bad. But what is unusual about an uninspiring, more dark chocolate than cake cake, except for the grayish, brown sauce poured into the dish at your table? 
But! This does not make me Republique any less. Just bring back the Salted Carmel Chocolate Cake and all will be forgotten.
… I had Wine & Cheese. 
Blurry photo, but a nice, healthy, half glass of light chablis - a good compliment that neither enhanced nor took away from this creamy, fudge-y, nutty, mildly tart, medium bloomy cheese…
Jasper Hill Farms ‘Oma’ (Cow, Vermont) w/Rustic, Nutty, Dried Fruit Bread, Honey & Persimmon Spread
We were aware of the great pasta situation. The Rigatoni Bolognese my sweetheart would love is only for lunch, and that fancy Ruffle Shirt Pasta was on the menu but with crab not lobster. “We buy whatever’s fresh.” Amen. I love crab but lobster is my girl, so. Another time. Those dishes and the Chicken Pot Pie (poor man’s duck a la presse) on the lunch menu are goals to look forward to.
I like how there isn’t loud music competing with loud people or the usual acoustic problems. It’s nice and loud in the restroom though. My husband dragged me in there to hear Joy Division. And you know what else is great? Being the last people in L.A. (we’re talkin’ bougie people in L.A.) to go to Republique means we got to discover a fantastic new restaurant!
Let the walking begin. 
Lyfted there, walked home.
Happy February!
Glad you had a good time. Yah, compared to what they used to serve, we (sadly) just skip the cocktails there now. They lost the entire staff and this new staff is not so good with the drinks.
