A Paris Bistro on an American’s Budget

Brentwood has just sprouted a new French restaurant. The menu is anything but haute: It’s the kind of basic bistro food you might find at any of the brash boulevard cafes in Paris. With entrees under $14--sometimes well under--inexpensive is the operative word.

I have to hand it to the owners--the decor looks exactly like a modern-day budget Paris bistro or brasserie with its oversized brass chandeliers, a scattering of vintage poster reproductions and woven bistro chairs. Pots of petunias sit on each table and wood curlicues tease the eye into thinking Art Nouveau. Le Petit Zinc’s best feature is the sidewalk patio framed by potted plants that’s as broad as anything along the great Paris boulevards. But because this is Wilshire Boulevard, there’s no parade of chic passersby--only the rush of cars.

For starters, you can order French herring with potato salad, those skinny Merguez sausages stained a deep red-orange with paprika and spice, or a bowl of mussels with broth splashed with cream and Pastis. French onion soup is pretty good for $4.95. But the bread--well, I guess I have to admit that’s authentic too, the soft, soggy loaf you find in French supermarches, unfortunately.

Grilled entreco^te is what to order--chewy and more flavorful than you’d expect for a steak that costs a mere $14, and it comes with a heap of skinny, golden-brown fries. Braised lamb shank is filling. But it’s hard to fathom the logic behind the veal daube--chunks of veal with sliced carrots and pearl onions in a Port sauce so reduced and cloyingly sweet it obliterates every bit of the veal’s delicacy.

It’s not great bistro cooking, but if you’re in the neighborhood and want to have a simple, inexpensive meal, Le Petit Zinc might fill the bill.

BE THERE

Le Petit Zinc, 11829 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 575-3777. Open daily for dinner; weekdays for lunch. Appetizers, $5 to $7; entrees, $9 to $14. Valet parking.