Jeanty at Jack’s gone, but…, Bar Bambino looks toward Oakland, Novato hustle
I used to work next door to Jack’s, the more than 100-year-old grill, that was, in those days, at least at lunch, like a male private club. Oh, women could dine there, but preferably with men and usually at night.
No savvy woman who worked in the Financial District could ever forget Ruth Reichl’s New West magazine review of Jack’s. On one of her visits, she went solo and the waiter rested his dirty tray on the end of her table.
She ripped Jack’s a new boutonnière, big time.
Seven years ago, after he bought the building, chef-owner Philippe Jeanty, opened Jeanty at Jack’s it became a nice place for women and he served a wonderful French bistro menu. On my last visit, about two years ago, service was robotic and the food was just so-so. It was like the energy had gone out of the place.
In the intervening years, Jeanty had taken over another Yountville restaurant and tried to open a brother to Bistro Jeanty called Pere Jeanty. When that didn’t fly, he morphed it into a steakhouse, and then closed it.
We’re still waiting to hear if Thomas Keller’s fiancée, Laura Cunningham, will open Vita there.
With the closure of his financial district eatery last Friday, Jeanty is back to one very good restaurant in Yountville, and that is not all bad – and he will be serving his wonderful tomato soup.
Stop the presses: We spoke last night with Montreal-born Luc Chamberlain, GM of Jeanty at Jacks, and before that managing partner at Hog Island in the Ferry Building and a manager at Nick’s Cove, who said that he and some of the employees are talking with Jeanty about a group of employees reopening Jack’s.
The plan is to utilize the ground floor and mezzanine, saving the second floor for private parties. The third floor would not be used.
The new name would be Jack’s Oyster Bar.
Railroad millionaire, “Diamond Jim” Brady, who lived during the time Jack’s was established, would be happy about the new concept, since he could slurp three or four dozen oysters as a prelude to dinner.
Christopher Losa, owner of Bar Bambino in San Francisco, is jumping on the Jack London Square Marketplace bandwagon, slated to open later this year. He’s leased a 2,400 square foot space adjacent to Daniel Patterson’s American bistro. (Patterson’s Coi is in San Francisco.)
There will be three components to “the delicatessen” (the working name): cheese, wine and cured meats.
And although he’s committed to local products, he wants to explore imported cheeses from Andante Dairy as well as hard-to-find meats from Austria, Germany and France.
Alex Fox, formerly the sommelier at Myth, is putting together a line-up of draft wines and a selection of local and imported wines for the wine bar. Sounds good.
They say a sucker is born every minute, but that was before email. Novato restaurateur Henry Hautau, who brought Kitchen to downtown Novato and expanded his holdings to include Finnegan’s across the street, got two interesting letters recently.
One was addressed to the owner of Portelli, the successor to Kitchen, and the other to the owner of Finnegan’s.
They were virtually identical:
“On [fill in the date], my wife and I had a bad experience. We spent over $65.00 that night. I ordered the steak. I found a small piece of hair on one of the steak pieces…
I did not want to cause a scene in front of my wife or the waitress, so I did not bring to her attention.”
The odds of the same patron having the exact same experience at two nearby restaurants must be one in a gazillion. Obviously, the writer – a resident of Novato – did not know that Hautau owned both eateries at the time.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Hautau whipped out a list he has of Marin County restaurateurs’ emails and told them about the two letters.
Lo and behold, the co-owner of Boca Steak in Novato, Shah Bahreyni, received an identical letter – we mean by that word for word identical, replete with grammatical errors.
Local authorities have been called and were planning to pay the writer a visit. I Googled the writer and found that he had been fined by the PUC for running an unlicensed moving and hauling business in San Rafael.
Henry Hautau sold Portelli (868 Grant Ave., Novato) to Mason Yekrangi, who previously owned a fast-casual place in San Francisco’s PG&E building, called Portico.
Yekrangi has changed chefs and the look of the dining room and enhanced the outdoor patio.
In fact he sunk over $25,000 into the patio. His new chef is Joseph Hajhasan, who brings a Mediterranean sensibility to the mostly Italian menu.
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Tomorrow I will be a guest on the Ronn Owens Show at 11 a.m. That is KGO Radio 810 on the AM dial.
The last time I was on the radio, my guests were owner Michael Le Blanc and his chef, Dean Dupuis, of Pican restaurant in uptown Oakland.
Dupuis promised me his recipe for his luscious mac ’n cheese. Well, I finally got it, so everyone can stop bugging me. Here it is:
pounds Velveeta cheese (the best thing to come along since white bread)
1/4
pounds smoked gouda cheese
2
ounces parmesan cheese
1
pinch nutmeg
1
tablespoon dry mustard
1
tablespoon hot sauce
1
teaspoon salt
2
garlic cloves, smashed
1/2
shallot, sliced
1/4
pounds sharp white cheddar cheese, grated
Cook macaroni pasta in boiling, salted water. Drain well.
Warm the cream with everything except the cheeses over low heat.
Gradually add the Velveeta first and cook until it has completely melted.
Next add the other cheeses, except white cheddar, and cook until melted, stirring.
Adjust seasonings and strain sauce.
Toss the pasta with just enough sauce to coat fairly heavily. Place in gratin dishes, top with grated sharp white cheddar cheese and bake until browned and warmed through.
With the closure of his financial district eatery last Friday, Jeanty is back to one very good restaurant in Yountville, and that is not all bad – and he will be serving his wonderful tomato soup.
ats. 
