LOS GATOS, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 28: Philippe Leroy, head chef and owner of Chez Philippe, poses for a photograph in a dining room of his restaurant in downtown Los Gatos, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Whether you sway toward moules frites or croque monsieur, a solid French meal — and the perfectly chilled Provençal rose — is never far away in the Bay Area. We have a plethora of French restaurants that proffer both the classics and modern interpretations of this revered cuisine, and a rush of three new cookbooks will help you whip them up yourself.
Interestingly, three newly-opened French and French-inspired restaurants — Chez Philippe in Los Gatos, Petit Left Bank in Tiburon and The Rendez-Vous in Oakland — illustrate the evolution of the storied bistro. One is traditional, offering Kronenbourg on tap and French onion soup the way maman used to make. Another serves CBD refreshers and shishito peppers alongside escargot en croute. And yet another is carving its own path, with Cal-Med influences and a design-centric party vibe.
Chez Philippe, which opened in June, is as classic as neighborhood bistros go, with a shabby chic interior, six bon plats maison — moules frites, poached salmon, duck confit, grilled steak, steak tartar and ratatouille crepe — and a reasonably-priced list of insider French wines, like white jurançon and red sancerre.
“When Julia Child moved to France, she learned my menu,” says chef-owner Philippe Leroy, who grew up in the suburbs of Paris and is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu. “What I’m making is what my mom made and what her mom made. I know what it’s supposed to taste like.”
Leroy has been in the business for more than three decades, having previously owned Pastis and La Boheme in Palo Alto. He’ll never charge for bread and butter — “over my dead body” — and while he is not opposed to experimentation, he is a stickler for technique and tradition: That onion soup should not contain a drop of water, only white wine. Crepes are made with beer, not milk. And waiters should speak some French. Several of his do.
And while Leroy doesn’t understand all the fuss in recent years elevating chefs to celebrities and restaurants to “museums,” he does offer one thing that could take up space in le musée: A bottle of 1964 Chateau Petrus, valued at $9,964.
“It is at the bottom of the wine list, and many people ask to see it,” he says.
Petit Left Bank, which opened for dinner service in September, is the newest project from Bay Area restaurateur Roland Passot, the James Beard award nominee who founded the Bay Area’s Left Bank Brasserie restaurants. Per its name, Petit Left Bank is the all-day café spinoff and will offer breakfast goodies, including croissants, and lunch by mid October.
With its wood bistro chairs, pewter bar top and vintage antique mirrors, the casual spot represents a next-generation move for Passot, who closed his famed prix-fixe San Francisco restaurant, La Folie, in 2020 after a 32-year run.
“We want people to feel comfortable coming to a vibrant place with a casual atmosphere and not feel like they have to order an entire menu,” says Passot, who lives in Mill Valley. “I’m not saying fine dining is going away. But the majority of people who are living in the Bay Area are being careful with their money.”
Petit Left Bank’s menu features all the necessities of a bistro, from fresh and baked oysters and roast chicken to petit filet, slathered in bone marrow butter. But subtle touches tell you Passot and executive chef Justin Minnich have thought about their shifting clientele.
They offer more than one salad, for starters, and three burgers, including one topped with monkfish liver “faux” gras when available. Those THC-free sparkling waters contain 25 mgs. of CBD. And a crispy chickpea cake with smoky aubergine, marinated French feta, shishito peppers and basil walnut pistou mean they embrace the plant-based times we’re living in.
“This is very important,” Passot says. “Even I eat less meat than I used to. I want to be able to add more vegetarian options.”
Seasonality is also important to Passot and will influence the changing menu. He and his team make regular trips to the San Rafael farmers market to see what’s fresh. The chefs, including those from Meso, the Mediterranean restaurant on Santana Row in San Jose, also meet quarterly to cook for each other. Recently, a young chef made Passot a terrific Bearnaise sauce. He was quick to praise it and is known for gifting his chefs with Jacques Pepin cookbooks. But he also wants them to be creative.
“A lot of them, this next generation, are so talented,” he says. “I encourage them to put their own touch into it. Tradition is important, but we have to be able to evolve to continue being better at what we do every day.”
Meanwhile, The Rendez-Vous, open two months and already drawing crowds in North Oakland, is all about evolution. The bar-centric spot, where the maison blanc is a sustainable picpoul priced at $9 a glass, is part of a personal journey for co-owner Johnelle Mancha, the Rockridge-based designer behind Mignonne Decor. Mancha is a Francophile who grew up attending bilingual schools and traveling throughout France and across Europe.
The vintage treasures that infuse The Rendez-Vous with countryside wanderlust — a brass back bar, gold-rimmed glassware, flea market silverware — are the result of her trips to the Dordogne region, where Mancha’s mother, Kim, runs Mignonne’s sister atelier, The Bohemians. The racy, Prohibition-era frescoes unearthed during construction — for real — contribute to the space’s je ne sais quoi.
“I wanted people to come in and feel enchanted or taken back to another place or time,” she says.
While the small, seafood-focused menu is inspired by French cuisine — there’s a chicken liver flan and fresh oysters a plenty — executive chef Nate Berrigan-Dunlop (Baywolf, Penrose, Pizzaiolo) uses Cal-Med and Japanese flavors to punch up dishes, such as beet-cured halibut with kosho and pickled cucumbers; Castelvetrano olives dusted with sumac and togarashi; and roasted cashews with rosé-flambéed cherries, Aleppo and microgreens.
Instead of beef bourguignon, The Rendez-Vous serves matelote de poisson, a fish stew known as fisherman’s coq au vin.
“If you walk into a Parisian bistro, this is what you will find,” she says.
If You Go
Chez Philippe: 34 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos; www.chezphilippelosgatos.com
Petite Left Bank: 1696 Tiburon Blvd., Tiburon; www.petiteleftbanktiburon.com
The Rendez-Vous: 5526 Martin Luther King Junior Way, Oakland; www.instagram.com/therendezvousoakland/
Originally published at Jessica Yadegaran