Le Bistro in Petaluma, CA – update, dinner
http://www.lebistropetaluma.com/menu_2.html
Review date: March 2014
(previous review appended below)

Carlos and I first dined at Le Bistro in August 2012 when we discovered that Sonoma County has a fine variety of French restaurants, unlike Alameda County where we live (sigh). Le Bistro is run by chef/owner Corey Basso, who is still in the kitchen every night. 

Chef Basso doesn't smile or glad-hand his customers. In fact, for an Italian he's rather a dour presence. For those who think chefs should be chatting up diners instead of supervising the line staff, Central Market restaurant down the street would probably be more your style.

We prefer the chef stay in the kitchen, because if line cooks were good enough to cook without any supervision, they wouldn't be line cooks. 

If you're wondering why an Italian should be doing French food, the answer is found in the classic haute cuisine that us older Boomers love. The Italians are great cooks, masters of traditional regional cuisines and trattorias, where you can get the kind of food your Italian grandmother would have made if she was a better cook. 

But the sophisticated, complex, elegant food good enough to serve to royalty – nope, even the Italians acknowledge that kind of rigorous training is only found in French cuisine (or Chinese or Indian; but most people stick with what they know).

The positive aspect of the cross-pollination of cultures, especially as the food scene has improved so dramatically over the last fifteen years, is that chef Basso seems more confident of putting out Italian foods made in a French style. For a moderately priced bistro, in many ways this is the best of both worlds, if not wholly French.

We are up here in Sonoma County for two days with our friends Mel and Christie. They've become fond of French food and are eager to try some new (to them) restaurants. I chose Le Bistro to see how the intervening years have treated it. Food costs have risen dramatically, and it's been difficult for independent restaurateurs to keep going.

The menu at Le Bistro isn't long, and could frankly do with more starters. There's only one soup and a choice of five salads, all sized properly for one. The portions at Le Bistro are, by today's standards, modest-sized plates. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that men in their 30's and 40's complain about going away hungry. Still, the menu covers all the important bases, and all of us began with either soup or salad.

Mel began with the tomato red pepper soup. This was a bowl of good-flavored, creamy-but-not-too-rich, bisque. We were able to recommend the linguine with prawns in a vodka cream sauce, which Carlos ordered on our first visit. Mel loved it. She said it was one of the best versions she had ever eaten, with long fresh noodles. I've always wondered why the vodka cream sauce has lost out to beurre blanc sauces – much as I love beurre blanc and its variants, the vodka cream sauce is wonderful with chicken or shellfish, and has less saturated fat. Le Bistro shows that this great sauce really deserves to be more widely used.

Christie began with the salad of Roma tomatoes, Gorgonzola, and balsamic dressing. She was disappointed in the quality of the tomatoes, but said otherwise the cheese and dressing were very good. She and I ordered the same entrée, the filet mignon with Gorgonzola and the optional topping of tiger prawns. The filet was a modest size, beautifully cooked to a perfect medium-rare. It was set atop two slices of roasted potato, which may sound ordinary but weren't. These were as tasty as the excellent fingerlings we used to get at Bouchee/Carmel when Andre Lemaire was alive (Bouchee has since switched varieties and the potatoes have dropped a level). 

When people discuss the better quality of ingredients available these days, one may not be thinking about a lowly spud. But just as today's diners have learned to distinguish great flour from good flour, and truly fresh-picked lettuce from lettuce cut a day ago, so do the varieties of potato often taste distinctly different.

The gorgonzola was in sprinkles over the filet, which was a good pairing if not as ideal as the thin schmear of bleu atop the filet at Meritage/Berkeley, which better integrated the funky cheese with the mild beef. The cabernet reduction was good but somehow lacked acid, which would have lifted this entrée up from very good into extraordinary. Still, it was good enough that Christie and I were happy to mop up every bit of sauce with the soft-crusted baguette slices that Le Bistro offers.

Carlos chose the arugula and prosciutto salad. It's made with lemon, a Spanish sherry vinaigrette, and a judicious amount of shaved Grana Padano cheese, a sharper and less costly alternative to Parmigiano-Reggiano. One of Le Bistro's strengths – and yes, it's that French training again – are the salad dressings which are masterpieces of the delicate balance between oil and vinegar. All five salads have different vinaigrettes; there is none of this one-size-fits-all nonsense that chain restaurants champion and lazy independent restaurateurs indulge in.

His entrée was the lamb tenderloin, seasoned with fresh rosemary and served with a port wine reduction. I had this entrée on our first visit, and it has shrunk noticeably. Nonetheless, the quality is exquisite and the execution is perfect. The lamb was just gamey enough to please Carlos (he's a mutton lover, from his Hong Kong childhood) but not offend the average American. 

The sauce again shows that classic French training: unlike our typical American chefs who make this sauce into something that could easily double as an ice cream sundae topping, Le Bistro's port wine reduction is deliciously savory with just a slight edge of port sweetness. His lamb also came with the slices of potato, and he agreed with me that Le Bistro uses a really delicious variety. 

This is what you'd like to see in a restaurant. If your restaurant must survive in a tough environment, raise prices and reduce portions, but don't go overboard on cost-cutting the ingredient quality. Doing the latter really hurt our last meal at Townhouse/Emeryville, in our eyes; the bread was awful and the crab-stuffed mushrooms didn't seem to have any crab. Heck, stuff 'em with spinach and breadcrumbs if you have to; but serving bad bread these days is disgusting. 

I always think it's a mistake for restaurateurs to be so afraid of raising prices. If you go to any new restaurant such as Desco or Iyasare, they are priced for making a profit at today's food prices. It's a great error to think the customers won't notice or won't care that the quality has slipped a couple of levels. 

I started with the mixed green salad with blue cheese, chopped toasted walnuts, and a cassis vinaigrette. I've come to realize that one of the things I love most about French cuisine is their salads. When executed properly they are one of the great joys of dining out, almost all of which is due to the perfection of a dressing that tastes different than the last oil-and-vinegar dressing you had. This was one of those salads that, like the two exquisite salads I had at K&L Bistro/Sebastopol (which is closed for remodeling during this trip, alas), I honestly wished had come in a giant two-person size – I would have eaten it all and loved it. 

As mentioned above, I also had the same filet with Gorgonzola and tiger prawns that Christie had, and enjoyed it just as much. I do think the lamb tenderloin is a better dish, but I'm very partial to lamb tenderloin which isn't offered much these days.

Dessert is almost mandatory at Le Bistro, and indeed, you're missing a great experience if you don't order one. We enjoyed our desserts the first time we ate here, but these had easily jumped a half-level or more. Especially noteworthy was the dessert special Mel ordered, an apple spice cake with salted caramel ice cream. She loves apple spice cake and said this was a wonderful version. The salted caramel sauce was drizzled lightly over the plate, with the vanilla ice cream on top.

Carlos ordered the Kahlua gelato torte and regular coffee. We weren't sure what he would get, which turned out to be a chocolate crumb crust with a two-inch high layer of a really superior Kahlua gelato.

I chose the brandy pecan tart with vanilla ice cream, and a decaf coffee. It was excellent, like a not-too-sweet pecan pie, perfect with a strong fresh coffee.

Christie settled for a pot of hot tea, although she took a bite from each of us.

It's a tribute to how good the cooking has become in Sonoma County that Le Bistro falls to last on this trip, even though the food was excellent. But it lacks the more flexible menu and variety of Bravas Tapas, and the more interesting dishes of Walter Hansel Bistro and French Garden. Le Bistro stays on our list as an "A" if we are dining in the Petaluma area, a town that's just beginning to spread its culinary wings.

Four people, dinner: four starters, four entrées, three desserts, two glasses of wine, three beverages, with tip was $215.

Le Bistro
312 Petaluma Blvd. So., Petaluma, CA
http://www.yelp.com/biz/le-bistro-petaluma
Review date: August 2012

Our friends Steve and Laura have often told us this is one of the better Petaluma restaurants. It's taken us a while to get around to trying it. Now we're sorry we didn't do it sooner!

Carlos and I often discuss restaurants in terms of satisfaction. This has nothing to do with quantity, despite his assertion that he's a gourmand and I'm the gourmet. Rather, it refers to a more elusive quality – not just good ingredients and skillful execution, but also that indefinable yet unmistakable feeling that what you are eating was cooked with care, even passion. 

He often refers to it as "cooking with soul". And indeed, there is nothing more contemptible to a good cook than the idea that someone is cooking food that s/he wouldn't want to eat. Cooking is a deeply personal activity when at its best, no matter what price level you're aiming for.

The menu at Le Bistro (it would be nice if more French restaurants would follow Bistro 29's lead and get a little more creative in naming) is relatively short.  Open since 2006, Le Bistro is somewhat outside the downtown center and the small dining room is just barely adequate to hold a dozen loyal patrons who regard this place highly.

Carlos chose to start with a prosciutto/arugula salad with lemon, EVOO and parsley. The baby arugula was fresh and spicy. The dressing was subtle, lightly applied, and a lovely accent, just the way it should be. The prosciutto wasn't premium, but was well above average.

I began with the Roma tomatoes with goat cheese salad, with a balsamic vinegar dressing. This entire trip produced mediocre tomatoes (except for River's End, appropriately our last meal on this journey). If the quality of these Romas had been a little bit better, it would have been a five-star salad. The dressing wasn't overly heavy with balsamic but instead, the correct slightly tart accent. The goat cheese was in precise proportion to the tomatoes; not too much nor too little. The Romas were good, but not great. Despite our recent heat spell, the summers have been overly cool these past few years, and the really good tomatoes haven't been appearing until quite late in August.

Carlos picked the fettucine with tiger prawns, in a vodka cream sauce. This is an oft-seen dish, usually decorated with frozen green peas "for perky color!" as the Manual of Overdone Restaurant Classics instructs. No, I don't know if there's any such book…but it so often seems there is. Le Bistro, however, keeps this dish focused not on what it looks like, but what it tastes like. 

And here it tastes precisely as it should: sweet fresh shrimp; in a simple sauce of shallots softened in the butter that was used to cook the shrimp, the right amount of salt and white pepper, smoothed with heavy cream and slightly reduced, with a splash of vodka added to lighten the sauce up before mixing it with fresh pasta. It was a moderately sized serving and completely satisfying. Carlos called it one of the finest pasta dishes he'd eaten in a long time.

I went for the lamb tenderloin. I was surprised to receive it pre-sliced, which on a heated plate ended up cooking the lamb past medium-rare into medium. With a tender American lamb, however, this is not a problem; the meat remains juicy and can be cut with a butter knife. It was served with a few pan-fried slices of Idaho potato, a nice choice of starch that soaked up the sauce. Asparagus and green beans were on the side, properly cooked but still a bright green. This was a generous serving of two small tenderloins, beautifully arranged in a circle of slices around the accompaniments in the middle.

Ah yes, the sauce! Let us never forget a great sauce, which elevates a dish from ordinary to extraordinary. The menu advertised the lamb as "with Port wine sauce." I love Port, and I'm fond of wine sauces. But all too often, chefs think it's obligatory that Port = sweet, even in entree sauces. But when you get a cook like chef/owner Corey Basso, the Port is treated as it should be: an essential but restrained accent. This was a sauce based on pan juices, salt, black pepper, and the merest whisper of Tawny port. 

There was just enough of that divine liquid to moisten the lamb slices and mop up with the delectable potatoes. You know that God is in Heaven when you encounter a sauce as simple and perfect as this, since I've always imagined that She is, of course, the very best cook of all. Yum!

Carlos ended with the crème brulee, which he said was a very fine version. I chose the nut tart. This was pecans and walnuts with brandy, in a refined version of pecan pie. Served with both light whipped cream and vanilla gelato, they made this a little more over-the-top than it needed to be. Not everything needs to be a la mode, no matter what mainstream Americans think. But it was a very good tart, regardless. 

The decaf and regular coffee were excellent. Both tasted strong and freshly made, and might have been the Illy brand we like, although I didn't ask.

We enjoyed Le Bistro very much. This makes it the third French restaurant in the Sonoma area that has won our approval. We enjoy visiting Sonoma County, but we wish we could find this great variety of French bistros in Alameda County where we live.

Le Bistro is the modest, simple, French/Continental menu. Bistro 29/Santa Rosa is the more creative, richer-tasting, regional Breton cuisine. French Garden/Sebastopol is the dressed-up Cal-French bistro that manages to retain a cheerful friendly air that doesn't frown at you for wearing your faded blue jeans when you walked in the door.

Interestingly, the cook at Le Bistro is Italian, which is why I classify it as Continental. Hence, the pasta dishes and the prosciutto on the arugula. No matter, it's lovely food, the way we like it. Good ingredients, restrained but creative combinations, perfect sauces, flawless execution. Le Bistro is a definite winner.

Two people, dinner: two starters, two entrees, two desserts, three beverages with tip was $104