Chef Yi-Fan with Baked Whole Trout with Braised Kale

When I heard that Brenart Café reopened with a new owner I was intrigued. It had seemed such a clear-cut great fit for its Belgian founders (who own an art gallery of the same name). I was curious to hear what incoming chef /owner Yi-Fan Chu has planned.

Gone are the art openings with local artists. The menu has changed. No more breakfast service. Chef Chu plans to put in a wine bar. His menu will be changing with the seasons so offerings in the summer months will not necessarily be on the menu in the winter months. This restaurant is evolving and Chef Chu has many ideas for its evolution.

French Dip Sandwich

As new wines come in Chef will make special menus to pair with the wines and have wine tasting events that he says will be “affordable.” He plans to have different theme-events in the coming months, one being a clam bake sometime in the month of September.

A graduate of the California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, Yi-Fan worked for two years in Germany. After coming home and helping to open other people’s restaurants he decided he’d like to open one of his own. He told me the Brenart opportunity just came out of the blue, “one of those good fortune things.”

Rib Eye with Gratin of Mushroom

Yi-Fan describes his cooking as European style with a French technique. His slogan is “For the Love of Food” and his plan is to create food that’s unique but affordable to everyone.

Our first dish was a lunch offering, the French Dip sandwich. A crusty French roll surrounded strips of roast beef which was topped with caramelized onions. This is not your ordinary, chewy French dip. The roast beef was roasted by Chef Chu and was tender and flavorful. Horseradish sauce, sweet and hot accompanied by sweet caramelized onions completed it. The jus was a complex reduction sauce, rich and savory. All of this was accompanied by thin crispy fries.

The next dish came from the dinner menu. A whole baked trout topped with braised kale. The trout was tender and flavorful accented with parsley oil which chef Chu made himself. Kale was mixed with spinach, onions and shallots creating a herbal accompaniment to the delicate trout.

The grand finale was the rib eye steak with a gratin of mushrooms. For this dish chef topped a thick cut of rib eye with a gratin of caramelized onions, shiitake mushrooms, garlic, shallots, parmesan cheese and cream. The mixture is then torched to a golden brown. With this dish you don’t have decide between having your steak topped with mushrooms or hollandaise the gratin serves the purpose of both; complex and savory mushrooms and rich and creamy parmesan-cream sauce.

Brenart is located at 53 East Union Street, Pasadena. They are open for lunch and dinner and brunch on Sunday. Their hours are: Lunch, Monday – Saturday, 11:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. and Dinner, Tuesday – Saturday 5:00 – 10:00 p.m. when they take their last reservations. They are open for brunch on Sunday, 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. and are closed on Mondays for dinner. For reservations and more information call (626) 796-7460. Their web address is www.chefyifan.com.