Let me be clear, all restaurants are fantastic places with lots of food in them. It’s just that some are better than others.

I’m a snail guy myself. Always have been, always will. Back when I was a pup, I’d go snail hunting every morning after breakfast. The more I had to dig through the rose bush to find a big juicy one, the better. Last Sunday I was watching the food channel and learned
the most interesting fact: people eat snails too. French people to be precise and they call the dish Escargot. Fascinated, I yelped “best escargot in Los Angeles” and Petit Trois on Melrose and Highland popped up. Knowing we’d be heading there later, I jotted down the details.

When 5 p.m. rolled around we decided to head east into the heart of Hollywood. The tiny French bistro is located next door to its sister restaurant Trois Mec. Both spots are very inconspicuous because they decided not to put up any signage. In fact, they decided to leave up the old signage from the previous tenants so that, until you roll up to valet behind a gas station, it looks like you’re going for Thai food or pizza. John Shook and Vinny Dotolo opened both hotspots after the success of  Animal on Fairfax and Son of a Gun  on 3rd Street. Just this week they opened their third concept restaurant, Jon and Vinny’s. I’ll have to check out all of them. But first, snails.

With only 22 barstools inside Petit Trois is first come first serve. As luck would have it, at 5pm on this particular Sunday, it was relatively vacant. We were greeted by a very efficient server who knew his stuff. For drinks, I got my usual””water, neat, no lime””while my dad ordered tequila prepared the same way. My mom loves fancy cocktails with whiskey so she opted for the Sud de la France (Rye, Fernet, St. Germain, Sweet Vermouth, Bitters). It was a fancy old fashioned and she enjoyed it so much she had two.

I didn’t even need to look at a menu. I ordered the Burgundy Escargot and the Steak Frites Maison and let my parents take care of the rest. Warm bread and thick salted butter came out to tide us over, but the snails weren’t far behind. Six larger than life, juicy fellas came out sitting in parsley butter and garlic. I began to drool”¦and not just a little bit. In less than one minute, with the help of my mother, I’d polished off all six. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to go back to garden snails again. The steak and fries were nothing fancy, much like the rest of the menu, but they were extraordinary in taste. The Frisee Lardon salad and the Carrots with blood orange and crème fresh hit the spot. The ambience is as unpretentious as the menu and that’s part of the allure. By 6:30 people were waiting outside for seats. We ordered two desserts: floating island (soft meringue with praline and anglaise) and the chocolate mousse with whipped cream. They were both perfectly on point.

When we finished, we gave our compliments to chef Ludo Lefebvre  and waddled out pleasantly full. Frankly, it’s no wonder Petit Trois is a James Beard finalist for Best New Restaurant in 2015.

Stay hungry my friends”¦