A Chic alternative to Bloom Cafe
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The owners of Bloom Cafe in Mid-City have found a way to beat the competition: They’ve opened a new spot cater-corner on Pico Boulevard, a bit west of La Brea. Chic is meant to be primarily a takeout spot, built around rotisserie chicken.
‘The neighborhood is coming up. We wanted to do something simple -- natural with a French touch,’ said co-owner Michel Rampal.
Bloom has been popular since it opened on a stretch of Pico that is home to plenty of auto body shops, but has in recent years welcomed a bakery and some gift and home shops, as well as a Cuban restaurant.
Chic is philosophically Bloom’s sibling, and the restaurant’s menu calls its food ‘healthy cooking using all natural free range chicken and the freshest local produce.’ It has rotisserie chicken with sauces, a few salads and side dishes, some desserts and a few other items. Unlike Bloom, Chic has a beer and wine license, transferred from the prior occupants of the space.
The biggest of the family meal takeout items, at $42, is two whole chickens with four side dishes (among the choices: green salad, roasted parsnips and carrots with ginger and parsley, sauteed green beans with mushrooms and shallots, brown rice and mashed potatoes.)
Soups are $6 or $7 and include one with lentils, spinach and mushrooms and one with white beans, cabbage, carrots and potatoes. Desserts tend toward the comfort zone: apple tart, brownies, ice cream. The menu also has two kid items, available only for eating in the cafe: two chicken legs and one side for $5.50, or two side dishes for $5.
There are tables inside and out.
Now, about that name.
‘Do you know how difficult it is to pick out a name for a restaurant?’ Rampal asked. Chic is meant to be funny -- sophisticated in French, a nickname for chicken in English. My teenage son got the joke and thought it was cool. And that’s a tough audience.
Chic, 5545 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. (323) 525-0234. It’s open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week.
--Mary MacVean
