Air Food L'Appart, French cuisine at home in LA

The Air Food restaurant swapped its minimalist Apple-like decor in Santa Monica for a more intimate and colorful locale in Downtown. Renowned for the occasion L'Appart Air Food, the new establishment opened its doors on Tuesday, September 17th. "We made a radical change of decoration, because the clean side is not something that Americans appreciate"says Marc Mubarak, the co-owner of the premises.

For this second establishment in Los Angeles – the first having closed its doors – they wanted to adapt more to the desires of Angelinos. "They have a vision of French cuisine very Paul Bocuse, they want snails and onion soup"he explains. But the chef (and co-owner of the place) Thierry Babet does not stop there and revisits the classic dishes, offering a fusion French-American cuisine with a avocado toast with a Béarnaise sauce or a beef Bourguignon served in burger or with a nan bread. "The important thing is the customer experience, we work on the visual because we eat with the eyes." A screen retransmits in the room the assembly of the plates.

The two men with distant races (but both collectors of shoes), met in 2012 via the sale of a pair of "sneakers". DJ at his spare time, Marc Mubarak was a savvy entrepreneur – he has already managed transport, car rental and event companies. "But I always liked the restoration, the relationship with the customer"admits the one who had already become accustomed to morning awakenings and employee management.

His meeting with the chef Thierry Babet, a lover of street-art, did not stop at a common passion for shoes. They quickly get down to a restaurant project. When Marc Mubarak evokes Los Angeles, his sidekick follows him. They fly away at the end of 2016.

On arrival, they are surprised by the level of cuisine, lower than in France, and have the ambition to discover dishes prepared to Americans. A project that ends two years later: they close the restaurant in Santa Monica – "The rents were unreasonable and the seaside town acclaimed by tourists, but shunned by locals"says Mubarak. They reinvest then the money of the sale for a more modest and adapted project, taking again the former local of 100 m2 of Palikao.

With its family photos on the wall, colorful pillows, mismatched plates and antique furniture, the new restaurant wants customers to feel "like at home", And not in a gourmet restaurant. The venue (as well as the chef) can also be booked to organize birthdays and other private events.

Two years after their expatriation, and despite the disappointment of their first project, Thierry Babet and Marc Mubarak hold great hopes in this new project. To bring them luck, the pair of Nike at the origin of their meeting is exposed in the window of the buffet restaurant.