Pascal Rigo Rolls, Fried Chicken Flies in Oakland, Dining Deals …

 

La Boulange de Hamilton (café and bakery) is opening next Monday, April 20. It joins Sonoma Latina Grill and is next door to Toast Novato in the Hamilton Marketplace.

The recently opened Toast is packing them in like owner Shahram Bijan just invented food. What he did is hit the right price point for the burbs in these tough times — the average price of his seasonal entrees is $16, with several priced lower. Since the opening glitches, we can now report that the fries are better, the steak is good and the linguini with clams ($14) is one of the best.

Pascal Rigo’s La Boulange is also the right entity for southern Novato. The closest really good bakery is in downtown Novato, Flour Chylde, which started out in 2002 selling at the Marin Farmers’ Market. As good as Flour Chylde is, they don’t bake bread.

Now, I’ve been following Pascal Rigo since he knocked us all out with Bay Bread, oh, so many years ago. Being French, he and his wife lived above the bakery on Pine Street, like you would see in France, where the baker or the chef often lives above the shop.

Rigo still owns and runs the original Bay Bread, but he and his family have moved to Noe Valley. In fact, since he moved to that nabe, he is negotiations for a La Boulange in the heart of Noe. In the meantime, he owns 11 La Boulanges, nine sprinkled around the City plus the Novato and Mill Valley shops.

Two of the Boulanges in San Francisco are actually a Rigolo café in Laurel Village and Cafe du Soleil in the Haight. “They’re really Boulanges, just with a different name,” Rigo jokes.

Over the last 15 years, he had a big-time flirtation with restaurants. Who can forget Chez Nous, Galette and Petit Robert? He also had a flirtation with olive oil, opening a few shops in conjunction with La Table O & Co — all closed.

For sure, Rigo will butt heads with the nearby Toast because of his expanded brunch menu and coffee brewed by the cup. And we don’t know of any other joint in Novato with organic coffee and organic bread. There also will be pastries, sandwiches and salads.

Of course he is not supplying 11 stores from the diminutive Bay Bread on Pine Street — recently, Rigo launched a large (40,000 square feet) production facility, where he employs 200 workers baking around the clock. Fantastique!

Rigo says it is two minutes from the airport. Will he be exporting his wares? You never know.

He doesn’t miss having full-service restaurants. Meanwhile he says, “So help me, GraceAnn, I can’t tell you how much I enjoy going to restaurants now — I have no more jealousy …”

With a large production facility, Rigo explains that he can duplicate his products (over 100 breads) and doesn’t have to depend on one person. Like a chef? I suggest. He laughs.

He is always looking for new locations for Boulanges, but Rigo says, like the crafty businessman he is, “It’s better if the landlord calls us — better for negotiations,” he adds with a chuckle.

Some areas that he’s interested in include the Peninsula, East Bay and more downtown sites. He also mentions “they’re redoing the Metreon.”

Recently, he bought a controlling interest in Meg Ray’s Miette, a high-end pastry-candy shop. The original is in the Ferry Building and is a pastry destination. Since Rigo became involved they’ve added the Octavia Street location, which he says is primarily about confections, and Chestnut Street, which is the prototype combining candy and pastry. Rigo says Miette is the perfect complement to Bay Bread.

Miette cupcakes. Photo by Frankie Frankeny

“La Boulange is rustic and masculine, while Miette is upscale and feminine,” he opines.

We don’t know if we agree with his male-female explanation, since during a normal day we feel butch when we eat pastries and then feel frilly with a hunk of bread. Anyway, expect more Miettes.

Michael LeBlanc threw open the doors of Picán in Oakland’s uptown district about two weeks ago. His chef, Dean Dupuis, has quickly become famous for his fried chicken. During the week, its not too bad, but they have been running out of fried chicken on weekends. Some patrons have taken to reserving their fried chicken when they book their table. Holy plucker!

Fried chix and Gouda mac n’ cheese by Arnold Gatilao

As we previously reported, here is Dupuis’ method: he starts with whole all-natural chickens from Petaluma. After he breaks them down, they’re brined for 24 hours in a solution of water, salt, sugar, black peppercorns, onion, and bay leaves. After the chicken pieces are removed from the brine, they swim in buttermilk and hot sauce for another 24 hours. Next, they are removed, rolled in southern wheat flour, which is spiked with salt, lots of black pepper, cayenne, garlic, and thyme. Finally, the parts are fried in canola oil in a cast-iron skillet.

Owner LeBlanc says he started out having his cooks prep 20 orders a night; now they’re up to 50. “I just want to make sure that the first order of chicken and the fiftieth taste just the same,” he asserts.

On a local blogger’s site it was reported that Bob Larive had filed Chapter 7. He is the longtime owner (18 years) of Fior d’Italia, which moved to Mason Street four years ago.

We spoke with Larive’s wife, Jinx, and she denied that the bankruptcy involved Fior d’Italia. When asked, she replied that it was a personal bankruptcy. The restaurant, located at 2237 Mason Street, would remain open, she explained. As far as the blog’s mention of suppliers getting letters advising them to write off any debt, she also denied that claim.

We talked to a lawyer friend who said that an individual cannot declare personal bankruptcy without involving his or her assets, e.g., a restaurant.

Meanwhile, Fior has many recession-busting meals every night of the week and a happy hour with half-priced drinks, wine and beer from 4–6 pm.

 

Deals around the Bay: One of my absolute favorite places, both for dining and to see a show is Yoshi’s San Francisco.

To pump up weekday business (and probably to bring in the younger set), the management is offering late-night DJ events in the lounge on Tuesdays from about 9:45 p.m. “until late,” spotlighting the Bay Area’s hottest funk/Latin, soul and jazz-fusion bands. Sushi will be served until 1 a.m. and new drink specials are only $3. Currently in the rotation are Spaceheater (Jazz Mafia), first Tuesdays; Hot Pocket (Bayonics), second Tuesdays; Suntail, third Tuesdays; Charlie Wilson's War, fourth Tuesdays; and Monophonics, fifth Tuesdays.

And for us boomers, April 16 is Country Joe "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to -Die Rag" McDonald.

He’s presenting a work in progress, “McDonald's Tribute to Woody Guthrie — A One Man Two Act Musical Play,” $20 for the 8 p.m. show.

 

Second deal of the week: Mantra, the Indian fusion restaurant in Palo Alto has happy hour seven days a week. The entire menu is half-priced 4:30–6:30 p.m. in the lounge, which seats 35; however, the owner, Ashwani Dhawan, let us know that the happy hour has been so popular, that he often also opens the backroom, which seats another 20. Right on.

I was chatting on e-mail with chef Duilio Valenti of Frantoio in Mill Valley. He told me he liked “the Yummy letter,” but he missed my contests, food-oriented multiple-choice quizzes.

The prize this week is a signed copy of the reissued Country Egg, City Egg, by chefs Gayle Pirie and John Clark, both of Foreign Cinema restaurant. The book was originally published in 2000 and covers 78 recipes from frittatas to champagne-spiked Sabayon sauce. The first person with the correct answers will receive a copy of the book.

Here is the quiz:

1. If you wanted to have naturally bluish-green eggs, you would:

 

A) Feed your chickens a diet of blueberries and corn

B) Buy an Aracuna chicken

C) Raise Peruvian Azure chickens

 

2. In order to have laying hens, you need to have:

 

A) A rooster

B) A free-range facility

C) Nothing special

 

3. When a Chinese baby is born, friends give:

 

A) A thousand-year-old egg

B) An egg made from pressed rice

C) A red-dyed egg

 

4. Brown eggs are more nutritious than white eggs.

A) True

B) False

 

5. When was the first White House Easter egg roll?

 

A) 1878

B) 1898

C) 1877

 

Be the first person to get all five correct and win the cookbook.
Send your answers to graceann@yummyletter.com.

Tune into KGO-AM (810) radio this Saturday, April 18. GraceAnn will be hosting Gene Burns “Dining Around” show from 10 a.m.–1 p.m.