On a recent Friday night, the long tables at Oh La La, Pasadena’s newish French bistro on East Colorado, were filled elbow-to-elbow with the kind of convivial chaos that makes conversation an aerobic sport. The jazz trio was swinging, the wine glasses clinked, and servers deftly navigated the narrow lanes between the busy tables.
On a work counter behind glass sat the evening’s baguette, a feat of engineering at least five feet of burnished perfection, “inherited” by head baker Daniel, who oversees a bakery program descended from a hundred-year-old boulangerie in Antibes. The boulangerie was co-founder Maxence Bouvier’s favorite childhood bakery, and he even convinced its owner, Jean-Paul Veziano, to cross the ocean and lead his baking team for the first year.
Oh La La’s bread began with a living starter, which was actually smuggled through customs over a year ago “as clothing” (Ssshhh!), its keepers feeding it like a cherished pet.
“We fed it for a month before the flight,” said Max. “And the first thing we did when we landed was feed it again.”
Bouvier and his partner, Thomas Kocer, started Oh La La as a pop-up bakery a year and a half ago, taking over the former Lovebirds space. The crowds came for croissants and lingered for conversation, until someone inevitably asked about lunch. They obliged, adding a small menu. Then came dinner, and a proper chef—Marcel Moore, once of Michelin-recognized Agnes—who expanded the offerings to an all-day affair. Now there’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and, delightfully, a brunch that a certain major metropolitan newspaper recently called one of the city’s best.
The new winter menu keeps things short and focused—about six dinner entrées—but with the kind of precision that feels confidently French. On our visit, the French onion soup was deeply caramelized with a perfect cheese layer, the vegetables folded in the Branzino in the classic Gallic way, and the steak frites—a local legend in the making—arrived tender and sauced just right.
“The satisfaction of limitation,” Bouvier calls it. “When you know there are only a few dishes, you know they’ll be made well.”
Dessert was another performance. Customers were served from a dining table-sized vanilla chiffon cake filled with berry compote and finished with orange buttercream, figs, and dehydrated citrus. From this edible runway, staffers sliced generous portions, as if cutting wedding cake for a hundred guests.
If the room was loud, the food silenced complaints. The acoustics were a bit like an air hangar, but this was a celebration, not a study hall. Couples leaned in close to talk; strangers chatted across tables. Oh La La has the slightly improvised charm of a place discovering its own rhythm—a community forming in real time around butter, flour, steak, and jazz.
The founders still think of themselves as bakers first. “People know us for coffee and croissants,” Bouvier says, “but we have a beautiful brigade in the kitchen, too.” With its old-world starter, its new-world energy, and its family-style generosity, Oh La La feels both imported and entirely local—a little bit of Antibes in Altadena’s orbit.
Oh La La is at 921 E. Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena CA 91106. Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily. www.ohlalalosangeles.com
