Straight to the top

<p>At Santa Rosa’s new Bistro 29, the food is just so darn good!</p><p>Good and soul-satisfying. This is food rooted in a sure knowledge of what pleases the human palate. It’s earthy, hearty, and bursting with flavor. Some chefs try to wow you with their innovative, fancy, airy creations. Chef Brian Anderson, on the other hand, takes familiar dishes and just nails them. One of our party looked around at the end of our meal and announced, “This is my new favorite restaurant.”</p><p>Take filet mignon, for instance. The Beef Filet ($26 ****) was seared in butter in a blazing hot pan until the surface was charred. But not so charred that it was bitter. Rather, it lent a rich char-grilled flavor to the most luscious filet imaginable: not soft and squishy, not firm and chewy, but so texturally attractive that I speared the last piece before my tablemates could go for it. The meat was finished in the oven to a perfect medium rare and was only enhanced by the shiny, delicious bordelaise sauce that covered it. This sauce is a reduced portion of red wine, beef stock, bone marrow, shallots, parsley, and herbs, very much like a succulent demi-glace, and just as intensely meaty.</p><p>As if the beef weren’t enough, it came with braised endive — wilted, chewy, tangy endive leaves as a foil for the savory meat. And with a potato-cauliflower gratin that turned those bland vegetables into an amazingly tasty side dish.</p><p>The space at 620 Fifth St. in Santa Rosa has held some mighty fine restaurants over the years. Michael Hirschberg started Mandala there, and later, opened Matisse. Barbara Hom’s Palm was widely praised. Café Lolo was highly regarded, and Chef Anderson worked there once upon a time. But Bistro 29 is the best of them all.</p><p>Anderson was most recently the chef at Applewood Inn in Guerneville, where his cooking set that resort apart from other places to eat in the area. Now he’s spang in the middle of downtown Santa Rosa, which should bring his cooking to a much wider audience.</p><p>He and his wife, Francoise, named the restaurant after her homeland: the French <CF102>department</CF> (or county) of Finistere (translation: end of the earth) on the wild and rocky Atlantic coast of Brittany, designated department number 29. When they applied for a Santa Rosa phone number, they got 546-2929. Sometimes the stars just align your way.</p><p>Because of its proximity to the ocean, Breton cooking is known for its seafood, fish stews, and such. Anderson isn’t going in that direction, although he does make fabulous use of the Breton specialty, buckwheat crepes, for the savory crepes. (His sweet dessert crepes use all-purpose wheat flour.)</p><p>Now you don’t have to go to San Francisco’s Ti Couz (16th between Mission and Guerrero) for your savory buckwheat crepes. Bistro 29 offers four kinds. The Duck Confit Crepe ($10 ***) contained pulled roasted duck with shallots and garlic thyme jus and was the essence of savory. The only flaw was an abundance of salt that pushed the overall flavor impression too far toward salty. The Forestiere Crepe ($10 ****) presented no problems at all. A lovely, earthy mix of forest mushrooms was enhanced by bacon and shallots in a cream sauce, everything wrapped up nicely by the crepe.</p><p>Anderson’s culinary theme is definitely French, but as much Paris and the countryside as Brittany. He’s aided by sous chef Adelaar Rogers and garde-manger Ana Calles. To support the cuisine, there’s a compact wine list. Some sample bottles: 2005 Delaporte Sancerre for $36, 2005 Arrowood Chardonnay $48, 2006 Landmark “Overlook” Chardonnay $40, 2004 York Creek Tempranillo $41, and a 2005 Kendall-Jackson Cabernet Sauvignon for $43.</p><p>Service is carried out by a very professional staff. Our needs were met swiftly but without any pressure to hurry us along. The waiter asked us the order in which we wanted our choices presented — a nice touch. The décor is simple, with soft, earthy colors. The walls are mustard above and dark red below. Banquettes line the east wall. The table setting is white tablecloth.</p><p>Dinner started with Soupe des Johnnies ($7 ****). Johnnies are Breton fisherfolk, and this is the warm onion soup that braces them after a long day on the cold water. It’s also anyone’s standard for great onion soup, with buckwheat crepe croutons and Gruyere cheese, and a broth that tastes of onions without the too-common mistake of being made so intense and dark that it’s almost bitter.</p><p>Anderson builds his Seared Goat Cheese Salad ($9 ***½) around a seared crottin. The searing releases the cheese’s flavors in a marvelous way that works well with the Banyuls vinaigrette. Banyuls is a French aperitif. The greens are endive leaves, and the salad also holds grilled pear chunks and toasted hazelnuts.</p><p>Barigoule is a Provencale stew of artichoke hearts, sometimes made with wild mushrooms, and Anderson uses this to surround the Roasted Alaskan Halibut ($23 ***½). The clean-tasting, low-fat white fish is also given a fish stock made with pinot noir. One might not think that an earthy barigoule like this would pair well with halibut, but one would be wrong. It’s a great variation of surf and turf.</p><p>Chicken is an easy dish to mess up, but Anderson shows his skill with the Roasted Spring Chicken ($19 ****). It’s perfect. Each piece of the small chicken — one could fairly call it a poussin — is done exactly right, from the juiciness and richness of the meat to the exquisitely crispy and flavorful skin. Due to the cholesterol in chicken skin, I usually avoid it — but an exception was made in this case. When it’s this good — well, you only live once. It’s served with roasted carrots and pearl onions, all in an anise-flavored tarragon jus. With the chicken comes a cup of pomme frites flavored with black truffle salt and white truffle oil.</p><p>For dessert, the restaurant offers a superb Caramelized Apple Compote Sweet Crepe ($6 ****) that couldn’t be any better. It tasted like a visit to Paris. A warm Valrhona Chocolate Fondant Cake ($6 ***) was appropriately chocolatey and was accompanied by a scoop of caramel ice cream. Small, honey-glazed, round Beignets ($6 ***½) were served with Meyer lemon curd and blueberries. Brown Sugar Crème Brulee ($6 ***) was exemplary. A Profiterole ($6 ***) — a popover stuffed with house-made ice cream, drizzled with chocolate sauce, and sprinkled with toasted, candied pecans — was a dreamy finish to an excellent dinner.</p><p>To sum up: Bistro 29 joins the ranks of Santa Rosa’s top restaurants.</p><p>Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review column for A&E. You can reach him at jeffcox@sonic.net.</p>