Bistro 31 offers student cooking at extremely low prices
SUNSET PARK Believe it or not, the ultimate cheap eat in town — the best bang for the buck — might just be an elegant sit-down restaurant located a stone’s throw away from the Santa Monica Airport.
Hailed as the best kept secret in Santa Monica by some, Bistro 31, a restaurant run by students in the Art Institute of Los Angeles’ Culinary Arts Program, offers a fine dining experience at hole-in-the-wall prices. Since the students are responsible for nearly all aspects of the restaurant, from cooking to cleaning to serving, all meals are served with little to no markup. The purpose of Bistro 31 is not to make money, but to teach students how to run a restaurant, and most importantly, that customer service comes first.
Located on the first floor of the Art Institute of Los Angeles, the restaurant is surrounded by offices and fitness centers in a business park near the border with West Los Angeles. The area offers few culinary options aside from the dining car situated on the cul-de-sac just outside the Art Institute. Lacking restaurant-like architectural features on the exterior, Bistro 31 is easy to miss.
So-called because it is a bistro on 31st Street, the eatery is one of the final mandatory classes students enrolled in the school’s culinary program take before receiving their degrees. The restaurant is open Monday through Wednesday for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and in the evenings from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. But the dozen students enrolled in the class arrive hours earlier, just as chefs would at a real restaurant, cutting the vegetables, setting the tables and briefing the staff on the weekly specials.
The 11-week course splits the class in half as six of the students spend the first half of the quarter working in the kitchen while the other six students run the restaurant in the front of the house, seating customers, taking orders, serving the drinks and meals, checking up on customers and running their bills.
The course gives the students, some of whom have never worked in a restaurant kitchen, the opportunity to learn the inner workings of running a successful eatery, from washing dishes to preparing ingredients to interacting with customers. All roles are important in operating a restaurant.
In the back of the house, the class allows students to develop a sense of timing and speed in preparing and plating food as well as learning about amount and quantity, said Chef Sylvan Rivet, the instructor.
“We teach students that it’s not easy to work [at a restaurant],” Rivet said.
The lunch menu was the masterpiece of Rivet, who is the owner/chef at Amuse- Bouche in Los Angeles. Monday’s menu featured specials such as the Fricassee of Duck a L’Orange with spring vegetables for $10, Osso Bucco Milanese style served with Provencale Ratatouille for $16, and Vichyssoise with Truffle Oil for $5.
The most popular item on the menu by far is the seared Atlantic Salmon steak served with potato crust and a California pesto salad for $11. For dessert, pastry students have nearly perfected the favorite on the menu — the dessert medley Bistro “Trio” Sweet Temptations, which includes samplings of the Madagascar Creme Brulee, Chocolate Soufflé, and Peach Pannacotta.
The restaurant has been reviewed by the Los Angeles Times and Zagat, which called Bistro 31 “Californian Cuisine that’s ‘worth twice the price.’” The Zagat plaque sits proudly on the wall adjacent to the cash register, with ratings of 22 points for food, 15 for decor and 18 for service.
“Culinary students understand what it takes to run a restaurant and gain a sense of reality,” said Christophe Bernard, the academic chair of Culinary Arts and Management.
Not all the students in the class have dreams of opening a restaurant some day. Louis Hernandez, who was serving customers during Monday’s lunch rush, is graduating next year with aspirations to open a franchise.
“It’s helped me get to know somewhat of a basic restaurant experience without it being too busy here,”Hernandez said.“A lot of people don’t get that experience.”
Until he reaches the goal ofopening a franchise, he wants to become the executive chef at a hotel.
While Hernandez was busy serving, Bryan Raives was busy cooking and plating a seared Atlantic Salmon steak. Raives is currently working at the Claim Jumper in Thousand Oaks, doing the basic cold food preparation like creating salads. Bistro 31 has given Raives the opportunity to work in front of a hot grill. Though he’s busy cutting vegetables for Claim Jumper, Raives dreams of opening his own cake decorating shop or sushi bar.
The Art Institute receives calls frequently from area restaurants, asking if there are any students interested in applying to become a prep or line cook. Prior to graduation, all students are required to meet with a senior graduate employment advisor from whom they receive career placement and resume assistance.
About 50 percent of the students already have jobs lined up by the time they meet with the advisor, said Leticia Pinon, a senior graduate employment advisor.
Many of these students will go on to become line cooks, prep cooks and banqu-chefs at Amuse-Bouche are graduates of the Art Institute.
Bistro 31 is located at 2900 31st Street. For more information, call (310) 314-6057
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 15, 2007. Read the original PDF.