Ever been to a pop-up restaurant? A restaurant with no physical address or permanent phone number? We can thank Chef Ludo Lefebvre for the creation of a “touring” restaurant: meet LudoBites. The restaurant travels the country, spending weeks, sometimes only a few days, in one location, with a new menu and new culinary team behind it. Our French-turned-Los Angeleno chef arrived back in LA for LudoBites at Gram And Papa’s, my favorite lunch spot when I’m at work, tucked in the middle of the Fashion District. So! LudoBites is back for three weeks at G&P and the 1,300 dinner reservations sold out within 1 minute, crashing OpenTable systems. My little heart broke when I couldn’t get a spot.

But! Then! Yesterday, I went to lunch at Gram and Papa’s and on the first bite of my salad, I looked up and in came Chef Ludo. Beaming and tattooed and so amazingly french. He prepped for the night’s meal while we ate our lunch and lord have mercy – if you saw him in person, you would understand. So I may not have dined on his tastings but I was able to see him in person doing what he does best. All in all, a deliciously great Friday afternoon lunch.

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