As outdoor dining reopens and local restaurants begin the road to recovery the Daily Press is highlighting one excellent eatery a week sharing its history, pandemic struggles, and signature dishes.
This week the spotlight is on Chez Tex — a Parisian inspired neo-bistro on the Venice end of Main Street, pairing French and Mediterranean small dishes with a top-notch natural wine selection.
The story behind Chez Tex
Chez Tex is a true mom-and-pops, owned and operated by local parents Hayley and Jesse Feldman since 2016.
The boutique restaurant seats just 36 people at a time and strives to bring a petite piece of Paris to a laid back Venice Beach setting.
“Neo-bistros take a traditional bistro format and put it on its head with a much less formal menu, much less stuffy wines, and more cool natural wines made by young hip winemakers,” said Jesse. “We wanted to tap into that and bring it to Venice, which is so eclectic and so awesome on so many levels, but we felt didn’t really have something of that nature.”
Jesse is originally from Ocean Park and grew up in London and Paris. He met Hayley in New York and the young couple soon drifted back to the beach, where Jesse’s dad still lives in the same Ashland Hill house where Jesse was born.
Chez Tex’s artsy minimalist decor is drawn from the couple’s New York days, while the menu and dining style is inspired by their travels to Europe. The food is sourced from farmers market produce and their fresh and funky wine selection combines old world offerings with blends from Californian vineyards.
Surviving the pandemic
Staying open has been an uphill battle. While their tight-knit family-run business model helped the team band together, the restaurant has struggled from a lack of government support.
Although Main Street boasts an expansive outdoor dining program, Chez Tex is just outside of the Santa Monica border and had to apply for street dining permits through the City of LA — a process that proved exceedingly difficult and ultimately unavailing.
At first their permit was denied because of the speed limit on the Venice end of Main Street. After this restriction was lifted, Chez Tex was denied again because they needed to apply with at least two other restaurants.
“The City of LA is really playing kingmaker, because they’re deciding which restaurants to help and which not to,” said Jesse. “I feel very hard done because I literally look across the street and see outdoor dining k-rails beautifying the restaurants opposite us.”
Fortunately the team has been able to take advantage of nearby vacancies and spill their tables across the sidewalk, but would strongly benefit from additional street seating.
They tried to apply for a L.A. County small business relief grant, but were disqualified as it is restricted to restaurants in unincorporated areas of the County. They’ve been waitlisted for other grant programs and have yet to see any money.
What to order right now
The Feldmans recommend starting out with a glass of organic wine and their fan favorite zucchini fritters served with za’atar, honey, and creme fraiche. Other popular nibbles include the marinated olives, curried nuts, and seafood conserva with saltines, lemon, and mustard.
“You might find that a couple of bites and a drink with a friend soon turn into a heavier meal,” said Hayley. “You can get the chicken paillard with capers and arugula or one of our most popular dishes is our seared scallops with a lovely sun gold tomato coulis and basil oil.”
The wine list changes daily but always featured an inventive range of natural whites, reds, roses, and oranges. Customers who love their wine can buy a bottle to-go for $15 off the menu price through a special ongoing promotion.
Jesse’s favorite wine of the moment is a funky blend of Grenache, Cinsault, and Mourvèdre grapes called Bim — French slang meaning “word/dope/bet”.
“I can’t get enough of it! It’s organic, it’s harvested by hand, it has a little carbonic maturation, no sulfides, no filtration, no refining,” said Jesse. “It’s a really delicious really good natural wine.”
Hayley is currently digging the Arianna Occhipinti SP68 red blend of Nero d’Avola and Frappato grapes.
“It’s a great red fruit forward wine that I could drink with or without food quite frankly,” said Hayley. “I love this stuff — it’s made by a fantastic female winemaker from Sicily.”
Chez Tex is open at 218 Main St. for outdoor dining and to-go Tuesday through Sunday from 5 p.m. until late.
Clara@smdp.com
