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Not to be confused with Artisan in Paso Robles, Artisan Bistro is a new restaurant in Lafayette (Northern California, Bay Area). Their doors recently opened in March 2009, and they’ve been wowing their customers with their creative California-French cuisine. Each dish is a work of art, and it’s no wonder with chef John Marquez on board. Marquez honed his culinary skills at Picasso in the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas, and the world-famous French Laundry in Napa, and was working at Fringale Restaurant in San Francisco prior to coming to work at Artisan Bistro.
Given squash are in season, I also decided to order a side of the ronde de nice squash with brown butter and pine nuts. The proportions of each of my dishes were perfect, and the prices were equally so. I would say that Artisan Bistro is a must-visit for anyone visiting or living in the Bay Area!
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I
was in the area for a sales trip, and decided to have lunch here.
Since their grand opening, Artisan Bistro has been a huge supporter
of the Carina Cellars 2004 SBC Syrah, and I was
excited to check it out and enjoy a glass. Upon arriving I was
immediately impressed by their delightfully shaded patio, and their
casually elegant interior. I chose to sit near the fireplace and
enjoy the view looking out onto the sunny patio, and started off
my lunch with the corn soup with sautéed maitake
mushrooms. It was almost like eat corn freshly cut off
the cob! I was also surprised to discover that this incredibly
creamy soup had absolutely no cream added, and was merely freshly
pureed corn…delicious!
Given
it was a hot day, I decided to follow my soup with the marinated
beet salad with herbed goat cheese, walnuts, fuji apples
and a shallot vinaigrette. I absolutely love beets, and this salad
was wonderful. Not only did it come with an array of both golden
and red beets, but it also had golden and red beet puree along
the side. Almost no dressing was needed because the puree was so
flavorful!