A regular says farewell to the 99-year-old restaurant and lounge, which closes March 29
It always takes a minute for my eyes to adjust when I transition from stark Echo Park sunshine into the welcoming darkness of Taix. The windowless refuge, with its wood veneers and shabby genteel burgundy booths, compensates for the lack of shade on what is an aggressively bright stretch of Sunset Boulevard. Scent memory usually leads the way down the bedrock stairs. If it’s early enough for happy hour, the butter and garlic from the first escargot orders eclipse the ammonia from the morning’s scrubdown, assuring us that this nearly century-old establishment — 64 years in this particular spot — still keeps itself fresh for its most regular guests like me.
In 1927, Marius Taix, Jr. and his business partner Paul Louis Larquier took over the restaurant in the family’s hotel, the Champ d’Or, which was located at 321 N. Commercial Street near the current site of the Metropolitan Detention Center by Union Station. According to lore on Los Angeles historical blogs like Frenchtown Confidential and Avoiding Regret, the restaurant was handed over to the Taix family because of the challenges posed by the Prohibition Era. Who wanted to dine out and linger over French food without the French wine?
The clever Marius, who was also a licensed pharmacist, established a very California, wellness-oriented workaround for the legal landscape by sourcing a supply of “medicinal wines” from an Oregon vintner. When prohibition laws were lifted six years later, Taix customers could openly enjoy their wine without the medicinal ruse, as they supped on the restaurant’s signature 50-cent poulet roti dinners and voluminous tureens of onion soup…