On the Side: Mon dieu! A burger and fries at Le Bec

The sandwich board on the sidewalk outside Le Bec-Fin last week advertised, among other promotions, discounts, and specials, an express lunch for $15.23, which, of course, is the address (sans decimal) of the gilded salon on Walnut Street, west of 15th.

The incendiary Georges Perrier himself was planted at the end of the downstairs bar, holding court (if an audience of two so qualifies), decrying the abuses visited on French cuisine, the thanklessness of the media, the punishing financial losses that his properties were incurring even as ingrates (really only a handful, maybe only one) sent him letters (a letter?) accusing him of sacrificing his sky-high standards in pursuit of the almighty dollar.

He is a perfectionist, a prideful chef, easily wounded: "How many did I serve for Restaurant Week? Over 3,000. How many complaints do I get? One!"

He has his own small empire now: a place in Atlantic City; Table 31, the power steak house in the Comcast Center; Le Bec, with its gem of a downstairs bar called Bar Lyonnais; Georges in Wayne; and, well - Brasserie Perrier didn't make the cut. Perrier closed it abruptly after dinner on New Year's Eve.

Even so, an express lunch? A burger and fries. (OK, with a lovely frisee salad dressed in white balsamic vinegar and hazelnut oil or, should you prefer, a cup of frothed parsnip soup.)

And $5 drinks and free bites at happy hour.

And on Mondays, go ahead, bring your own wine.

And three-course dinners for $35!

Times are tough all over, no less so the higher you climb on the food chain. So you hear stories: business at a South Jersey stalwart off 30 percent; a new sous chef let go at London Grill; Susanna Foo offering gourmet Chinese delivery; Fork's holiday gift certificates down by more than half of the usual $20,000 total.

The gossip attending the bumper crop of new steak houses grows thick with gleeful schadenfreude: Did you hear about the steak-house opening that had to be catered because its ovens were on the fritz? About the steak house that's luring off-duty strippers to happy hour with free drinks and meals? The steak house that can't make proper steak tartare?

In venues large and small, hospitality is back in vogue. Sometimes with a vengeance: A couple in South Philadelphia had a hard time leaving a red-gravy joint on Passyunk Avenue, the chef personally pitching off-menu specials, the waitstaff pouring glasses of jug wine, gratis.

So there is the sandwich board on Walnut Street, brown butcher paper pasted on molded plastic, inviting you to Bar Lyonnais downstairs (or, if you desire, to Le Bec's chandeliered, Mobil-starred Parisian dining salon at ground level), for an all-American burger and fries.

It is no ordinary burger, certainly: juicy (20 percent fat) prime sirloin, the patty rather finely ground, on an ethereal brioche bun, toasted and slathered with sweet tomato jam, a tangle of frisee, and caramelized onion puree.

Nor are the fries particularly typical or even French: They are sizzling and fresh-cut from Kennebec potatoes, chosen for their lower water content and, thus, higher potential for true crispness.

But wait, says Perrier, trying out his next idea on the lunchers at the bar: What about letting kids 12 to 17 eat free if their parents order full meals?

"We could teach them to appreciate good cooking."

Though presumably sometime after the express lunch.