I CAN'T TELL you to rush to Le Vieux and try their well-spiced lamb tagine, served in a clay vessel with prunes, almonds, couscous, and cabbage ($24). I can't tell you to start with an order of succulent braised rabbit ($13), with a classic sauce of Dijon, white wine, and parsley.

I can't tell you to get these dishes—or pretty much anything else on this nearly three-month-old restaurant's menu—because they're already gone.

Annette Yang and partner/chef Brian Leitner, the duo behind the much-lauded Nettie's Crab Shack in San Francisco, opened Le Vieux (meaning "The Old One" in French) in the former Noisette space on NW 23rd Place in December. According to their website, they felt the Bay Area was "changing," so they sold the old shack and decided to move to Portland for a more "balanced" life.

After almost a year here, they debuted Le Vieux. The dining room is a nice transformation from Noisette's white linens and (IMHO) ugly abstract art. It's cleaner now, and the space reflects its history as a single-family home, with bare tables and travel books tucked into high-up nooks.

But the concept (and the execution) is both intriguing and incredibly frustrating. The idea is that Yang and Leitner flit around the Mediterranean, featuring cuisine from a new country each month. Le Vieux is racking up more frequent flier miles than Carmen Sandiego—in its short life, it has bopped from Morocco to France to Tuscany. (Next stop: Greece.) Oh, and they rotate offerings within that month, too. So if you loved the French cassoulet, order two, because it might be gone in a week.

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