Bistro Jeanty

Bistro Jeanty is a French bistro on Washington Street in Yountville, in the Napa Valley of California, run by the chef Philippe Jeanty. The family-run restaurant serves classic French home cooking in an informal setting.

Jeanty was born in Champagne and learned home cooking from his grandmother and his mother. As a teenager he spent a summer in the kitchen of Joseph Thuet at Moët & Chandon, and the summer turned into years of training. He then came to California with the team from Épernay that opened the Chandon restaurant in Yountville, the first fine-dining restaurant in wine country, and became its executive chef within a year. In San Francisco he later opened Jeanty at Jack's in the landmark building of the old Jack's restaurant.

Red-and-white awnings, flower boxes and extra-wide shutters mark the front. Inside, the room is small and snug, painted buttercup yellow and hung with old French advertisements and posters of Marcel Pagnol, with lace curtains at the windows. In warm weather a small patio fills with diners lingering over espresso and crêpes Suzette. The Michelin Guide gave Bistro Jeanty a star from 2007 to 2009 and later listed it with a Bib Gourmand.

The menu keeps to bistro classics. Tomato soup comes baked under puff pastry, mussels arrive with French fries, and cassoulet, coq au vin and steak au poivre share the list with escargots, sole meunière, fried smelt and roasted bone marrow. A grilled rib-eye with fries and béarnaise is a steady choice, and desserts include crème brûlée and crêpes Suzette with orange butter. Food of this kind relies less on invention than on doing familiar dishes the way a family kitchen would, which is the cooking Jeanty learned first.