Bastide shuttered as staff awaits word on new concept
The saga of Bastide, the West Hollywood restaurant with the revolving cast of high-profile chefs who have a tendency to leave — voluntarily or not — continues.
On Monday, Bastide’s crew arrived to find the monogrammed blue doors closed, the restaurant inexplicably shuttered by its mercurial owner/commercial director Joe Pytka just weeks after a glowing 3 1/2 star review in the Los Angeles Times.
“We were called into the [Pytka’s production] office and told that the restaurant’s closed, that Joe wants to re-conceive,” said sommelier Pieter Verheyde, when reached by phone Monday afternoon.
“We were kind of surprised,” said Verheyde, who has been at Bastide since 2007. Pytka, who is in Scotland, returns on Wednesday. The staff was told that Pytka would give them details upon his return. Neither Pytka nor chef Paul Shoemaker could be reached for comment Monday.
“It is what it is,” Verheyde said. “I have no regrets, because we’ve been able — with Joe’s means — to create something original.”
As of now, “the door is locked,” confirmed Pytka’s publicist Joan Luther, who repeated the term Verheyde had used: Pytka “has an idea to re-conceive,” Luther said. Calls to Pytka’s office referred the matter to Luther.
Bastide has a well-documented history of chef-shuffling, of sudden turns and shifts in direction and of abrupt closings. It has gone through four head chefs in less than six years, including a year and a half when it was closed.
Pytka spent a reported $3.5 million to open Bastide at the end of 2002, with chef Alain Giraud at the helm. Under Giraud, Bastide earned an unprecedented four stars from Los Angeles Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila.
But less than two years later, Pytka let Giraud go, replacing the Paris-born chef (now chef-owner of the Santa Monica brasserie Anisette) with Ludovic Lefebvre, formerly of L’Orangerie.
Lefebvre didn’t make it to the two-year mark either. After unfavorable reviews for his avant-garde cuisine (one star from Virbila), Pytka and Lefebvre parted ways.
At that time, Pytka shut down his restaurant much the way Willie Wonka closed the doors of his chocolate factory; designers and chefs came and went presenting their ideas while Pytka searched for the magic formula for the restaurant, but the dining public was not invited.
For a year and a half, Angelenos waited.
Then in July of last year, Bastide finally reopened with new design, a new menu and a new chef. Walter Manzke, who came down from Carmel with his wife Marge, Bastide’s new pastry chef, drew an appreciative audience and three stars — before he quit this past May.
To fill Manzke’s place, Pytka tapped Shoemaker, previously chef de cuisine at Providence. It seemed a good fit, and Bastide ascended to 3 1/2 stars on his watch. Four chefs, and it looked like a return to the realm of four stars, or at least pretty close.
Wrote Virbila in her review: “As Pytka conceives it, Bastide is not simply a place to eat; it’s an ongoing experiment in the restaurant as performance art. It’s also possibly the most civilized place to dine in Los Angeles.”
That was less than a month ago. Now the staff is cooling its heels, waiting until Pykta gets off a plane and they learn if this is to be a short hiatus — or a very long Thanksgiving vacation.
“Reconception,” especially as employed by a man such as Joe Pytka, is a very relative term.
RELATED COVERAGE: A look through the L.A. Times archives underscores the highs, lows and in-betweens at one of the city's most talked-about restaurants, as well as the economic backdrop of the restaurant world:
By Amy Scattergood, Times Staff Writer
Photo credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times
To Flip...I never stated that I didn't understand the value of a good meal. Those are your assumptions, and your words, not mine. And, yes I have worked in the restaurant business for 35 years.
But I've never ever forgotten one of the lessons I learned as a young adult...Dining out is not the cure for cancer and it is certainly not world peace. It's just dinner. It can be fun, pleasant and memorable but, at the end of the day, it's just food. And I'm a bit tired of those who would gussy up good honest food and decent friendly service to the point where it's an "experience".
I don't want an "experience". I want dinner, friends, conversation and a glass of wine. You can have the rest my friend.
Peace
Posted by: Joel | November 25, 2008 at 08:05 PM
While I am not surprised that Joe closed Bastide again he has no idea what he wants in life. He closes the restuarant now a month after a 3 1/2 star review by the LA Times, just as he closed the restaurant 6 weeks after a 5 star Mobil Guide rating when Ludovic Lefebvre was the chef; a fact that is missed in the article.
Posted by: Al | November 25, 2008 at 12:25 PM
I simply don't understand someone who claims to have worked in the restaurant world for 30 years and this person does not understand - or truly value - the effect of a good meal. A great meal lasts a lifetime. And this is not just in relation to Bastide. It can happen anywhere.
But to say "it's just food" - I don't know what you're eating, but I certainly don't want to taste it!
Posted by: flip | November 25, 2008 at 11:22 AM
Pytka could have selfishly worked out his personal demons in his home kitchen, but offered others a chance to taste his mania. It's a bit of test-kitchen lunacy, but amusing to watch and taste.
Posted by: Jack Henry | November 25, 2008 at 09:06 AM
Never having been to Bastide, but having worked in the restaurant world for over thirty years, all I can say is...For God sake's it's just food. It may be quite delicious, presented artfully, in an elegant atmosphere, with attentive staff and fine accompaniments but...it's still just food. Please don't make dining out more than what it is. Because dining out is about a short break from routine and sometimes a chance to celebrate something special. It is not akin to scaling The Mount with Moses. It's food.
Peace
Posted by: Joel | November 24, 2008 at 09:47 PM