LudoBites is Chef Ludo Lefebvre's roving bistro, currently at Gram and Papas.
(photo by Julian Fang)

Gram and Papas in Downtown Los Angeles is, by day, an unassuming lunch spot on 9th Street in the heart of the fashion district. Taking up most of the space is a long bar where employees in t-shirts with the restaurant's motto, "eat clean, play dirty" emblazoned across the backs, hustle to chop salads and press paninis.

But come nightfall, the narrow space, with its dusty exposed brick walls and giant chalk menus, is transformed into Chef Ludo Lefebvre's roving bistro, LudoBites.

Despite his reputation as something of a culinary rock star, Chef Ludo Lefebvre prefers to think of himself as a gypsy traveling around the city with his popup restaurant, LudoBites. In tow is his wife and managing partner, Krissy, a self-described army brat - a fact that might account for her own complicity in indulging her husband's wanderlust.

Chef Lefebvre grew up in a small town in Burgundy, France and trained with some of the great French masters of cooking -Alain Passard and Guy Martin among them.

Upon moving to Los Angeles in 1996, Lefebvre landed at L'Orangerie, where within five months he was promoted to executive chef and eventually received a Mobil Guide five-star award before moving on to Bastide, where he received the same accolade in 2004.

His first foray into popup dining came in 2009, when the first incarnation of LudoBites appeared during the off-hours of Breadbar on West Third Street. Since then, he has popped up in restaurant kitchens including Akasha in Culver City, The Foundry on Melrose, and with a second version of LudoBites at Royal/T, as well as with a fried-chicken-slinging food truck.

Chef Ludo Lefebvre. (photo by Max Wanger)

Chef Lefebvre, known for his mercurial temperament, displays an unwavering commitment to indecision. Lefebvre set out to create a kind of roving bistro with LudoBites - a traveling neighborhood spot where regulars mingle freely with the chef, the bartender, and one another.

"LudoBites, it's a real restaurant," said Lefebvre. "I don't want it to be a special occasion restaurant. It's...like a neighborhood restaurant - like in Europe -- it's packed every night, people come back, it's very affordable."

Krissy attributes the philosophy behind LudoBites to a growing trend among top-tier chefs in Europe.

"All the chefs of his caliber in Europe right now are saying, 'screw fine dining' and they're all just doing stuff like this," she said. "They have permanent locations but it's this kind of environment."

"You know, I like to move like this and its challenging and its difficult but its not boring," he said. "Now I control my destiny and there is no price for freedom - I really like it and that's what I want."

Chef Lefebvre has also appeared on the Bravo TV show, Top Chef Masters, and is set to reprise his appearance on the April 21 episode. Of being on TV, Lefebvre says he likes it, but that he'd rather be in a restaurant interacting with people.

"I like contact with people. I want to feed them, it's my job -to feed people," he said. "Yes, I love TV, of course, but that's not my job as chef - it's to be in the restaurant."

The owner of host restaurant Gram and Papas, Mike Ilic, opened shop a little over a year ago with the goal of delivering simple, fresh food in a super-casual setting.

Lefebvre and his wife approached Ilic a few months back about doing a popup at Ilic's new downtown spot, and things quickly fell into place.

"Krissy and Ludo are like lightening in a bottle," Ilic said. "He came in here and immediately looked at what we had and was trying to figure out how to work around our space instead of how to come in and change it."

Chef Lefebvre brought with him some rooster statues for decoration-- the LudoBites logo is an image of a knife-wielding rooster -- and a few things to hang on the wall, but otherwise the space is largely unchanged from day to night.

And that's just the way Chef Lefebvre wanted it, said Mike Illic.

"It was amazing because I can't imagine any other chef of his caliber coming in with the attitude of working with what we already had," he said.

As far as the plan goes for the food at LudoBites at Gram and Papa's, Chef Lefebvre says he never knows what he'll be cooking from one day to the next.

"There's no plan for the menu. It depends on what's at the market, on my mood, I do what I want every day," he said.

Chef Lefebvre said he's excited about spring, and he has some strong opinions about what cooking should be.

(photo by Julian Fang)

"I want to see a lot of life on the plate especially now with spring it's all about life, color, and texture," he said. "I'm a little tired of all this heavy food like pork belly. I really want to try to teach people how to eat, not just how to eat fat.  I want it more elegant, simple, interesting, tasteful - I always say it's the most difficult thing for a chef to cook simply but interestingly."

While Lefebvre's food may be interesting, he acknowledges that it's not always so simple. He insists that people need to be open to discovering new flavors and that he wants his guests to feel free to ask him about food they don't understand.

As for his detractors, those who come in to LudoBites with a negative attitude, ready to critique and judge, Lefebvre wonders how they can be so harsh.

"I understand if the steak is too cooked or something's too salty but to critique French food when you have no idea what it is, how do you critique that?" he said. "There is so much to know about food and I still don't know everything about food!"

Luckily, said Krissy, the city's food-blogging community has taken to him from the start. Chef Lefebvre agrees.

"These people are so passionate about food and, I mean look, all this blogging made LudoBites!" he said. "It's all those people who have supported me from the beginning and really respect what I'm doing, because they are real foodies and they really appreciate food."

This past Thursday, I went for dinner at LudoBites at Gram and Papa's - where the only changes to the daytime scenery were in the form of votive candles on the tables, some twinkle lights strewn around the large street-facing windows, and a frenetic energy behind the glass encircling the bar. Also, the t-shirts had been changed to ones with prints of Ludo's iconic rooster image.

One of the challenges of running a popup restaurant like LudoBites, according to Chef Lefebvre, is finding consistent people to work from the front of the house to the back. This Thursday night, the front-of-house staff was a makeshift team of family members on both the G&P side and the Lefebvre side - our waiter was Ilic's brother and Krissy was running the floor as maitre d' and manager.

The menu reflected Lefebvre's excitement for spring; the carrot salad appetizer came out a mélange of reds, oranges, and deep purples with a sprinkling of flower petals and a dusting of pollen. A monkfish dish arrived as a gorgeous study in vibrant greens and purples, and even the bread and butter was scented with chamomile and lavender.

With Chef Lefebvre coming out to take photos and leaning over the counter to swap greetings with his guests, the space was transformed into the bustling and intimate affair he had described as his vision.

When asked what his plans are for the future, Chef Lefebvre's answers are peppered with exclamations of  "I don't know!" with one exception: he will continue to cook and to do it in the most surprising ways.

LudoBites will be popping up at Gram and Papas until May 28 and reservations can only be made online at http://www.ludolefebvre.com/ludo-bites/gram-papas.