A Michelin star is a symbolic star award that is given to restaurants that are regarded as having high standards. A restaurant can get up to three of these Michelin stars and there isn’t any chef who doesn’t dream about getting one. It’s a really big honor for both the chefs and the restaurant.
The Michelin starred Trois Mec was a beautiful eat-in restaurant owned by celebrity chef Ludo Lefebvre. The French chef named the restaurant based on the fact that two other chefs, chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, co-owned this franchise alongside him. The Trois Mec actually translates into three guys and right next door to this restaurant is the Petit Trois which is also owned by Ludo Lefebvre.
The Trois Mec had been bagging great reviews from critics over the years ever since it started operations, and two years ago, in 2019, it was awarded a Michelin star. It was an exceptional restaurant whose chef is well known specifically for his TV appearances on culinary shows like Hell’s Kitchen and Iron Chef. He has even featured as a judge in the cooking competition known as ‘The Taste’ on ABC and the chef has written several cookbooks.
Sadly the glory days of this restaurant had to come to an abrupt halt as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. When the pandemic forced all restaurants to close, the Trois Mec didn’t offer delivery or make take out available to customers like many restaurants did. Lefebvre simply didn’t believe that the Trois Mec experience could be obtained like that.
When he spoke with the LA Times, he said “Sadly, the restaurant is closing for good. The reality is that this is not going away any time soon,” in reference to the pandemic. He also added in a post on Instagram that the concept of his restaurant was not cut out for social distancing.
The Trois Mec was a reservation-only restaurant. Lefebvre described the endeavor to offer delivery services as a risky investment. He said “Unfortunately, Trois Mec is not a to-go experience, Outdoor dining requires a significant investment to be Michelin-star dining and it just didn’t make sense. The resources are not there and the investment is too risky.”
This famed restaurant was once a 24-seat family-style sit-in. Lefebvre said the concept was to have people sit with him in his kitchen as he cooked for them, likening the guests and staff to a family having a meal together. It didn’t seem feasible for him to limit sittings to 4 tables and 8 seats at the bar, as the guidelines for reopening during the pandemic suggested.
Although the celebrity chef had expressed plans to expand the Trois Mec in the coming years, hoping to create an additional smaller dining area as part of the restaurant, he says no one is sure what the future of restaurants would be like, so nothing is certain.
The chef has said farewell to his staff and is now using the space where the restaurant once stood to make Paris-style kebabs like he grew up eating. Los Angeles is surely going to miss the Trois Mec, but the chef isn’t done cooking just yet.
