Bistro Chic: The Second French Revolution Authentic French bistros and brasseries are making a strong comeback in the United States. But this time, it's not haute cuisine or formal service that's drawing diners - it's the earthy fare and friendly spirit traditional to these franco favorites. By Nancy Ross Ryan

These days, it seems, there's a bistro everywhere. Airlines offer coach passengers a "bistro meal" - thin code for a sack lunch. Quick-service sandwich shops call themselves bistros. Yet in both cases, a croissant is as close to French as you can hope to get on the bill of fare. Chef Jean Claude Poilevey says, with a philosophical shrug, "People call everything a bistro these days. The term has cache. They tend to confuse bistro with a wide variety of concepts." He should know the difference. He has been the chef-proprietor of real bistros in Chicago for almost three decades. From 1973 to 1993 this native of Burgundy, France, was chef-partner in La Fontaine, a trend setting French bistro on Chicago's north side. When the building that housed the restaurant was slated for demolition, he and his wife and partner Suzanne Poilevey opened Le Bouchon in 1993, and in 1998, they opened a second Parisian-style Bistro, La Sardine. The Real Thing Poilevey describes a traditional bistro as a small, chef-owned and -operated French neighborhood restaurant. The menu is modest, nothing fancy, and the fare is traditional but personalized by the chef's specialties and his way of preparing the food. The good news for chefs like Poilevey and other francophile culinarians is that after a lengthy period on the outs with dining consumers, French cuisine is once again a hot commodity. "Absolutely, no question about it, French food is hot," says Mitchell Davis, director of publications, The James Beard Foundation New York. And Davis says bistros are at the heart of this French renaissance. "I have always though that when people learned something about food they wouldn't feel the need to spend a lot of money eating at restaurants where it was more about formality, service and luxury than about food. And that that Americans have indeed learned more about food and are willing to pay for it at any level, they are especially attracted to bistros, which offer good food in a casual environment. Bistros are not necessarily very cheap, but they offer great value." When asked why French cuisine, so popular in the decades before the 1980s, fell so far out of favor until recently, Poilevey says flatly, "There was a lot of over-priced bad food." For him the bistro, with its well-prepared, moderately priced, traditional fare, is fueling the revival. "We had to bring it back to some kind of normalcy," he says. Brasserie Boomlet Meanwhile, Bistros' larger, louder sibling, the brasserie, is experiencing a boom of its own in New York. In Manhattan, several brasseries have opened in rapid succession in the past year, joining the long established L'Absinthe and Brasserie Les Halles. According to a recent New York Times article, brasseries have opened or will be opening in almost every neighborhood. One of the most popular, Balthazar, opened in 1998. New entrants include Brasserie Julien, Acacia Brasserie, Pastis, Basseriebit, and The Brasserie, a reopening of the original 1958 brasserie. "A brasserie is always bigger, open more hours and usually less expensive," says Jean Joho, a French chef who was born in Alsace and today owns Everest, one of the premier French haute cuisine restaurants in the country, and Brasserie Jo, both in Chicago. "At a brasserie," he says, "You can go and have one course - or a full meal. You can wear jeans or a tuxedo." Brasseries - originally beer halls - usually have a great selection of beer and a raw bar. But until very recently, brasseries were scarcer than hen's teeth in American cities. The brasserie appeals to today's lifestyle on many levels, offering flexible mealtimes, menu options, late night dining, no dress code to speak of, and the ability to accommodate groups, singles and couples. The hours of service are long, so people may eat outside standard meal times and late at night. The menu is flexible so customers may order one course or several. Because there is always a bar, groups can congregate easily. And the informality coupled with high energy and a stylish decor creates a captivating ambiance. Menu Nuances Le Bouchon is more of a traditional bistro, with a mere 42 seats; Poilevey is the chef and proprietor. La Sardine is larger - 85 seats - "more like a Paris bistro," says Suzanne Poilevey. La Sardine's chef de cuisine is a young American, David Burns, who previously worked with French chef Jean Banchet in his Restaurant Riviera in Atlanta, at the Ritz-Carlton, Chicago, and is continuing his training in traditional French cookery under Poilevey, first as sous chef at Le Bouchon and now as chef de cuisine at La Sardine. The menu changes seasonally, both at Le Bouchon and La Sardine, but La Sardine tends to "have a younger approach, thanks to David's talents, and the menu changes more," says Poilevey. Still customers demand the traditional favorites. "It would be hard not to have onion soup, steak and pommes frites on the menu," he says. And Suzanne Poilevey laments that one of her favorite menu items at La Sardine, Ragout d'Escargots, a stew of snails with lardons, mushrooms and croutons, had to be dropped in favor of the more traditional escargots in garlic butter. Still, you have to have authenticity, Poilevey says, "Otherwise, without that culinary orientation, you look at a menu and wonder, 'where am I?' Then asked if one has to be French to cook French food, he replied, "It helps. But of course not. Someone can do a good job if they know the food and the culture. And in this country we have wonderful ingredients." Patrick Laurent, proprietor of Bistro du Nord, a 60-seat bistro in New York's Carnegie Hall district. "If a chef has been to France and knows what bistro food is all about, then the traditional dishes on the menu will be authentic. And remember, there will be people eating that food who have also been to Europe and to France and eaten true bistro food." Some believe that the future of the French bistro actually lies more in America than France. Jean-Paul Cavanie, chef-proprietor of Jean-Paul's French Corner, a 55-seat bistro he opened in 1979 in Sanibel, Florida, says, "For the past 15 years I have gone back to France every year. And I see that bistros are beginning to disappear in Paris. A bistro is too hard for the young generation. They have bigger places; they want to make money rapidly. Now a lot of the bistros in Paris are really chains, not family restaurants." Chef Octavio Beccera, opening chef at Pinot Bistro in Los Angeles says, "When the bistro left its homeland and hit the States, we embraced it and are taking it to different levels." Culinary Evolution But what is happening to the traditional bistro and brasserie menus? Are they, as Beccera of Pinot Bistro in Los Angeles suggests, evolving to a different level in America? Some of the more traditional dishes remain menu standards: choucroute, steak and pommes frites, bouillabaisse, ratatouille, onion tart, croque monsieur sandwiches, cassoulet, quiche Lorraine, etc. Of course, other very traditional fare such as tripe, kidneys and brains are still a hard sell to a mainstream audience, although great chefs can do wonders with rustic offal. For example, Chef Jean-Louis Palladin is currently serving - to rave reviews - crepinettes at Palladin in Manhattan. (A crepinette is caul fat wrapped around seasoned pork meat and offal to form a sausage.) New York Timesfood columnist William Grimes says the difference between bistro and brasserie menus can be mainly a matter of atmosphere, however, he thinks of bistro food as more "individually curated, more idiosyncratic, an auteur production." When it comes to the brasserie menu, Grimes cites two menu trends. The first is what he terms "a deliberate trip down French memory lane," and the food is very traditional French, such as you would find at Pastis and Balthazar - both "aggressively old-fashioned." But an emerging menu trend is found at a new Manhattan brasserie, L'Actuel. "The menu is a shrewd combination of traditional dishes with twists, for example, fruits de mer with two sauces, the traditional mignonette sauce and a great American cocktail sauce - gloppy, red and excellent," he says. Actuel's menu offers more than just a Franco-American conversion. It is, as Grimes writes, the brasserie of the future. "It feels French. It sounds French. But there's an unmistakable, enticing whiff of Spain, Italy, North Africa and the Caribbean in the air," he says. The international menu does not, he says, dilute the formula, and there is a lot on the menu to remind you that "You're still on brasserie row." But he sees the menu as an indication of "more modern French sensibilities," which are international. With the opening up of the European community, he says, cultural influences are beginning to flow freely and, of course, "culinary influences flow most easily of all." So in the decade now upon us, look for more bistros, more brasseries, and the newer ones with menus that are increasingly contemporary and global.

	Recipes from La Sardine, Chicago Soupe au Potiron (Pumpkin soup) Yield: 6 servings 1/2 small leek, cleaned and chopped, white part only 1/2 small white onion, small dice 1 small carrot, small dice 1 clove garlic, crushed 1 medium fresh pumpkin, skin and seeds removed, diced into 1-inch cubes 1-1/2 quart chicken stock or water 2 Tbs. butter 1/2 cup heavy cream (optional) Salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste Roasted pumpkin seeds, creme fraiche, croutons (optional garnishes) Method: In a small stock pot over low heat, saute the leek onion, celery, carrot and garlic in butter. When the onions are translucent, add the diced pumpkin. Pour in the chicken stock or water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until pumpkin is soft. Remove from heat. Cool slightly, then puree the soup in a blender or food processor until smooth. Add cream (optional), and season to taste with salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. May be garnished with roasted pumpkin seeds, creme fraiche, or croutons. Moules Marinieres (Mussels steamed in fresh herbs and white wine) Yield: 2 servings 1 Tbs. olive oil 2 shallots, finely chopped 1 cloves of garlic, minced 1 Tbs. fresh thyme, chopped 1/2 Tbs. fresh parsley, chopped 3/4 cup dry white wine 1 cup heavy cream 28 Prince Edward Island mussels, scrubbed, beards removed Salt and pepper to taste Method: In a medium saucepan, saute shallots, garlic, thyme and parsley in olive oil. Add white wine. Raise heat and reduce until au sec (dry). Add cream, then mussels. Cover and steam until the mussels open, approximately two to three minutes. Remove from heat. Arrange mussels in two bowls. Season the liquid in the saucepan to taste with salt and pepper. Pour over the steamed mussels. Serve with a crusty baguette or crispy pommes frites. Salade Lyonnaise (Green salad with poached egg, bacon and croutons) Yield: 2 servings 2 eggs 4 ounces slab bacon, cubed 1/2 cup baguette or French country bread, cubed 1 Tbs. butter 2 cups mixed greens, washed and dried For the vinaigrette: 2 ounces olive oil 3/4 ounce red wine vinegar Salt and pepper to taste Method: Fill a wide, shallow pot with water and bring to a simmer. In a medium sauté pan, lightly saute bacon in butter. When partially cooked, add cubed bread. Lightly cook, tossing often until bread is toasted. Crack eggs in to simmering water. Cook until soft poached (approximately 2 minutes). Meanwhile, mix ingredients for vinaigrette in small bowl, and toss with greens. Place greens on two plates. Remove eggs from water with slotted spoon and drain onto paper towel. Place one egg on top of each salad. Surround greens with bacon and croutons. Serve immediately. Crème Brulée (Burnt custard) Yield: 4 to 6 servings, depending on size of ramekins 9 egg yolks 3/4 cup sugar 3 cups heavy cream 1/2 vanilla bean, or 1 Tbs. vanilla extract Brown sugar, as needed Method: Preheat oven to 300°F. Put cream and vanilla into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Whisk yolks and sugar together until smooth. Slowly whisk the hot cream into the egg yolk mixture. Pour through a fine strainer into a pitcher. Pour the crème brulée into individual ramekins. Place ramekins in a shallow baking dish, and pour hot water into the baking dish until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake at 300°F until set, approximately 20-25 minutes, depending on the size of the ramekins. Remove from oven, cool on a rack and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. To serve: Sprinkle tops of custard with a thin layer of sugar. Place ramekins under broiler until sugar melts and caramelizes. Serve after caramelized sugar had hardened.