In contrast to dining destinations like New York and Las Vegas, Los Angeles has never been a city where prix fixe meals have a strong following. Indeed, one of the few restaurants in LA to offer no choice was Bastide, where chef Paul Shoemaker still has an eight-course fixed-price menu, priced at $125 for food alone. There's an optional surcharge of $110 for wines to match, or $190 for wines from owner Joe Pytka's fabled "Wine Collection." But after what the restaurant's publicist describes as "pressure from diners," the restaurant has given in to the Los Angeles taste for smaller meals – and for the ennobling freedom of options. On Tuesday, Bastide launched an à la carte menu of appetizers priced from $16 (heirloom tomato soup) to $24 (king crab); and entrees from $36 (char or duck) to $40 (lamb or beef). Wines to match are $16 for a glass and $9 for a half glass. But the kitchen still maintains a large amount of control over what you're served – the à la carte menu is minimalist in the extreme with no descriptives at all – just "risotto," "scallops," "char," "duck," "lamb," "beef" and so forth. Were there pork on the menu, I'd suggest that it was a "pig in a poke." But there isn't.