So if you want that Look-at-me-at-French-Laundry-nana-nana-boo-boo Instagram post, better to take a photo of the restaurant's iconic signage. However, beware the lighting isn't great for taking food shots and the waiters discourage flash photography. This will also eliminate the needless handwringing that comes when scanning a wine list, especially one as robust as The French Laundry's.Įach plate presentation is museum-worthy, but that doesn't mean photography is prohibited. There are over 30 wines offered by the glass, and your waiter will do a masterful job teasing out the nuances of each dish with the right wine selection. So unless you want to remortgage your house to buy a number of bottles, ask your waiter for a three-glass pairing. While there are certainly reasonably priced bottles available, finding one that will compliment every course of the kaleidoscopic meal you're about to have seems impossible. The wine list comes in a leather-bound iPad that glows up at you with bottles of the three- and four-figure varietal. Maurice Rougemont/Gamma-Rapho // Getty Images Thomas Keller in the garden of restaurant The French Laundry. Most of Keller's staff have been aboard The French Laundry/Per Se train for years and listening to them muse about his cuisine and the preparation enriches each dish tremendously. Repeat after me: "The French Laundry is a restaurant-not a temple." While waiting for your second course of celery root purée, Thompson grapes, Virginia peanuts and pea tendrils, you might find yourself whispering to your fellow diners in reverential tones as if the chefs are behind some nearby curtain fastidiously creating your food like Tibetan monks working on a sand mosaic. "Saudi royalty behind us?" The dining room seats 60 and the people watching is nearly as delightful as the cuisine.ģ.ĝon't be blinded by the Michelin stars. Who joined you in the absurdity of waiting three months for a table? "Is that Yo-Yo Ma at that two-top by the window?" you lean over and whisper to your date. The question is inevitable before even Keller's legendary first course of "Oysters and Pearls" (Island Creek Oysters and White Sturgeon Caviar) arrives. Remember this meal is more about your palate than your stomach. Allow your eyeballs to roll into the back of your skull. If you're famished by the time the napkin hits your lap, the first three courses will go by in blur. All told the prix fixe menu boasts seven courses plus dessert. The pacing of the meal is glacial, and the portions are small but intensely rich. The French Laundry is going to slay your appetite, but will do so with strategically shot arrows rather than by a giant swipe of the sword. Or close to it anyway.ĭon't make the mistake of fasting before dinner. If you're lucky enough to land a reservation at his Napa Valley flagship, The French Laundry (no openings on OpenTable), here's what you need to know to get your money's worth. After New York Time s critic Pete Wells roasted the famed chef's New York City landmark Per Se in a recent review that lopped off two of its stars, it's safe to assume that the meticulous Keller has all his restaurants on high alert and it might be easier than ever to get a reservation at one ( OpenTable currently shows dinner openings for two every night over the next week except Saturday). I was uncomfortable with its excess.There could perhaps be no better time to dine at one of Chef Thomas Keller's restaurants than now. But not long before Governor Newsom attended that private party, fueling support for the recall, I wrote about how a meal there felt a bit like sneaking onto an opulent spaceship, orbiting a burning planet. Dishes such as the silky tuna tartare, held in a tiny, crisp cone, were (and continue to be) widely replicated, though most restaurants simply can’t replicate the atmosphere - the lush gardens, the perfume of fresh black truffles, the perfectly pressed uniforms.Īs a line cook in my 20s, I studied the recipes and photographs in The French Laundry cookbook, hoping its knowledge would transfer to me, reading and rereading it so many times that the pages became soft and worn at the edges. Reservations were (and continue to be) impossible. The chef Thomas Keller took over the Yountville restaurant in the mid-90s and defined that era’s American fine-dining sensibility, equal parts playful and extravagant. The images of him hobnobbing with guests, indoors, without a mask on, at one of the country’s most expensive restaurants, were immediately and powerfully symbolic. Newsom was seen at The French Laundry, attending the birthday dinner of Sacramento lobbyist Jason Kinney. Gavin Newsom had been spotted on the patio of a tiny neighborhood bistro just after urging California residents to stay home last November, we might not be blogging about a recall today. This is what I keep thinking about: If Gov.
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