2 days ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Their Wine Country restaurant is a hot destination. Their new spot is for the locals
The team behind one of Sonoma County's best restaurants will soon open a new, more approachable spot in Petaluma.
Named Bijou — 'jewel,' in French — it is the latest from Table Culture Provisions owners Stéphane Saint Louis, Steven Vargas and Marta Saint Louis. At 190 Kentucky St. starting Friday, June 13, diners will find seasonal dishes applying French technique to the North Bay's wealth of seasonal produce, but at a lower price than the group's original restaurant.
Table Culture Provisions is beloved by visitors and locals, who often refer to it simply as TCP. But with a tasting menu that runs in the triple digits and can only accommodate around a 10 tables, it's not easily accessible.
'That is a barrier for the community to come in every day, or once a week,' said Saint Louis, who will run the kitchen at the new restaurant while Vargas helms TCP. 'At Bijou, you'll have food at the quality and standard of what we offer at Table Culture Provisions, just more affordable and approachable.' (The restaurant did not provide prices for dishes.)
Snacks and shared dishes will include tempura vegetable batons with a green goddess drizzle and sprinkled with malt vinegar powder, and a petit croque monsieur with shaved truffles on top. The Cowgirl x D. Fatti is a rosemary boule from local bakery Della Fattoria hollowed out and stuffed with Cowgirl Creamery's funky-rich Red Hawk cheese that's topped with roasted garlic and a drizzle of honey. The bread's interior is cut into stubby sticks, then fried, the better to dip into the soft cheese.
Larger entrees will include a 10-ounce rib eye from San Rafael butchers Flannery Beef in a black peppercorn sauce, cut into thin slivers that give it a classic French bistro feel. A small side of bone marrow truffle fries and a small salad with shaved Parmesan come along with the cut. A Japanese sea bream will be served with a vegetable ragout and a pistachio caper sauce.
Hand-made stuffed pastas will rotate frequently, starting with caramelle, pasta bundles with twisted ends akin to a wrapped caramel. These come stuffed with Liberty duck legs cured in a cumin-fennel blend then confited overnight. Staff baste the caramelle with a jus made from duck stock and duck bones that's spiked with a hit of Port. A zigzag of rich crème fraîche and pea tendrils accent the dish.
'I'm just a fan of stuffed pastas and I take pride in making these,' Saint Louis said. He's already looking forward to future pastas such as a tortellini filled with hearty beef cheeks during the colder months of the year, and agnolotti stuffed with locally caught Dungeness crab when the next season begins.
Dessert at Bijou from Table Culture Provisions pastry chef Sylvain Parsy includes a mille feuille, the classic French dessert of layered puff pastry and vanilla cream, that's textured with burnt caramel and a ribbon of creme anglaise. A flight of petit fours, assorted bite-sized sweets, will come in triplets or quartets paired with coffee or tea. Once summer strawberries arrive at the restaurant they will go into a tart topped with rhubarb sorbet. Until then, there's a sundae that's topped with shaved almond, cacao nib and a pour of fresh, hot chocolate sauce.
Otello Tiano, who led the bar program at San Francisco's Lazy Bear, consulted on Bijou's drinks. The cocktail list will include six original cocktails and six classics with a French inclination, using ingredients like Chartreuse and pastis, a liqueur flavored with anise. Wines will be diverse, with various styles and origins, but with a focus on California.
Bijou took over the former home of southern restaurant Easy Rider, known for its fried chicken and mac-and-cheese, which closed in December. The space can accommodate 55 seated diners, making a dinner reservation or a walk-in a lot more feasible than at TCP.
Plans are to open every day, except Wednesdays, for dinner service, with regular Sunday brunch. A daytime window, Café Bijou, will offer pastries, sandwiches, salads and a soup du jour, plus coffee using beans from local roaster Petaluma Coffee & Tea Co.
Saint Louis described the interior as feeling like 'modern comfort,' with its whitewashed walls, concrete bar and minimalist tables. Exposed brick supports and warm light from metal frame chandeliers help the building a cozier, he said. 'It's my jewel box for the community.'
