Ken Frank Finds a Kindred Spirit to Buy La Toque

Since Ken Frank put his La Toque restaurant up for sale in January, he’s held his last all-truffle dinner, a last Cinco de Mayo dinner, a final garlic dinner. Frank is now offering his last wild mushroom dinner, through Thanksgiving--a four-course prix - fixe ($40) menu with as many as 10 to 16 different kinds of mushrooms, including French hedgehog, an Oregon-grown one that resembles a belly button, and a lobster mushroom that’s red-orange on the outside and creamy white on the inside.

But this time, Frank is really calling it quits. He is in the process of selling his 14-year-old West Hollywood restaurant to Yujean Kang, owner-chef of the well-regarded nouvelle Chinese restaurant in Pasadena that bears his name. Kang plans to divide his time between both spaces.

“In this economy I’ve heard from lots of lookie-loos and low-ball artists,� Frank says. “The only person with any integrity who’s come into the picture has been Yujean. I’m thrilled he had the money to pull it off.�

Although Frank plans to continue operating La Toque possibly through the end of the year, he’s exploring new employment possibilities. “I’ve been doing French food like this for 22 years now,� he says. “I’ve been through a fire, then I had to get rid of my partner, then I was paralyzed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, and I reorganized out of Chapter 11 right into the Depression. Now I get a chance to move on to something exciting. You won’t hear me complain.�

Kang has been searching for the right spot to open another restaurant for a year. “It’s like finding a girl to get married,� he says. “You look around and look around. Finally when it happens, it happens.�

Still, Kang consulted a feng shui master before he tied the knot. Feng shui --literally, “wind and water�--is the Chinese practice of creating a harmonious environment by attracting good spirits and warding off evil ones. Some prospective buyers have been known to reject a property because of an unlucky number of stairs.

It would seem Kang’s feng shui master approved the property--Kang has hired a designer from Taiwan to remodel the space, give it what he calls “Oriental flair.� At least, he says, everyone will be able to find him in West Hollywood. “If you say La Toque,� says Kang, “almost everyone knows where that is.�