An Opera That Sings

It’s Memorial Day weekend, a time when all Americans belong in their back yards, hard by the barbecue. A time when restaurants are traditionally empty. And yet this brand-new restaurant is packed. Why?

It probably has something to do with the fact that Opera, 1551 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica, (213) 393-9224, is the eagerly anticipated place opened by the people who own Trumps. And that the chef is Claude Koeberle, whose fans have been following him for years.

But if they were expecting modern architecture or California-French food, these early customers were in for a surprise. The square room is both spare and warm, with an old-fashioned air that comes closer to approximating a real French bistro than anything Los Angeles has yet produced. The waiters even wear long aprons. And the menu is like something you’d find in Marseille, where the Arab influence is strong. We may be surprised to find pain bagnat and roasted lavender chicken and bouillabaisse sharing a menu with couscous and dolmas and merguez sausages, but people in southern France wouldn’t even blink.

Here in Santa Monica, people are swallowing their surprise and ordering up the homemade breads and the whole roast fishes and all those interesting little appetizers. And as they eat them they are looking happily at one another and murmuring, “This sure is better than barbecue.”