The Venice and Mairna del Rey borderland is making way for a new Indochine restaurant on Washington Blvd. in the former home of The Lido Grill. Called Le Cellier Wine Bar, the part-French, part-Vietnamese project comes from an owner of nearby dive-bar Hinano, in partnership with the team behind the neighborhood’s China Beach. What’s on the menu?
Yo! Venice! prepares readers for an opening this week, with a first look at the menu of charcuterie and five-spiced lamb chops, while owners tell us they’re ready to open as soon as a liquor license gets full approval. While the involvement of lackluster China Beach doesn’t exactly portend for this to be a West Side solution to the neighborhood’s Vietnamese deficit, we’ll have to try it nonetheless to see how menu items like toasted banh mi cha, seafood pho, lemongrass-sauteed mussels, and flame-broiled beef tongue, as well as chalkboard specials, turn out in French chef Bernard Louberssac’s hands.
Le Cellier Wine Bar, 417 Washington Blvd. Venice.
Le Cellier Venice Beach [Yo! Venice!]