Ba Restaurant

If this place were in NYC or DTLA, you would never be able to get a table.  The chef keeps the seating area small, and I realized over brunch yesterday it's because he has a particular love for preparing each dish, and it would be prohibitive to try to do that in a bigger restaurant. This is very much "boutique" eating.  The menu changes seasonally.  Each time I drop in with a girlfriend to get a bottle of wine, she looks at me and says, "It makes me angry, almost, that this place isn't always packed with people." Except we love it because we get seated right away.  The environment is delightful, like a beautiful candy store, with velvet upholstered wainscoting and comfortable tweed chairs pulled up to cafe tables with ornate iron bases.  The artwork on the walls and ceiling is cheeky and interesting, and seems to change each visit.  This is a GREAT date restaurant, it's quiet and you can really have a conversation.  There's light 50's jazz on the stereo. The wine list is excellent.  Every dish I've eaten here is delicious.  For instance, I tried the poached egg with crab on brioche for brunch yesterday.  Chef prepared the fresh crab especially for my excellent dish.  The light drizzle of hollandaise was lemony and bright tasting. My date ordered the duck hash and it was savory and yummy. He also ordered coffee (beautiful presentation) and OJ (skip this, its only three bucks and from concentrate) and the bill was under forty bucks.  Not bad for a fancy gourmet brunch!  Other things to try are the Mushroom Brulee and the Duck Liver Mousse. I just checked the menu and it's changed again, so there's more new things to try.  I can't recommend this place enough.

I'm sure most people who see "Ba" have the same joyous thought: barium enema! Sorry to disappoint, but this is a French restaurant. The name is an informal variant of la-bas, a hipsteresque primary indexical in response to the formulaic ubiquity of "chez." It's akin to calling a fancy steakhouse "Thar."

(If this isn't true, please tell me how I can make it more convincing, as a hobby of mine is devising false etymologies.)

We found ourselves staying for brunch. Highlights included a light, fluffy vegetable quiche, poached eggs on lobster cakes with hollandaise, and gallons of coffee by Monkey & Son, a local roaster having recently replaced Chi-town interloper Intelligentsia as the house brew.

The smiling face of owner James made a brief appearance at the service window, to the delight of all. Speech! Speech!

The plan had been to mount up and continue the bike ride along York Boulevard, but I was too full and ended up walking for five or six sloshy blocks.

Anniversary dinner success. We loved it.