Cox: Winning combinations at the girl and the fig

Somewhere along the line, restaurateur Sondra Bernstein fell in love with the Rhone Valley of southern France. She has transformed her passion for this sun-drenched region into a Sonoma bistro called, all in lower case letters, the girl & the fig. It’s become wildly popular.

For instance, it has spawned a second restaurant, The Fig Café in Glen Ellen, in the space where the original “girl” was located 14 years ago. Two books by Bernstein have emerged: the girl & the fig cookbook and Plats du Jour, a tour of Wine Country eats through the seasons. She runs a catering company. One of her bartenders at the Sonoma restaurant makes a drink she calls a mochatini that’s pretty near irresistible if you like coffee and chocolate and vodka.

Early on, she latched on to a cook named John Toulze, who has turned into a first-rate chef and is now the executive chef for both her restaurants. That tells me she has an eye for talent - he’s completely self-taught - and the intelligence to nurture it.

The girl & the fig shares a building with the Sonoma Hotel on the northwest corner of the historic Sonoma square. Besides the interior dining room and food service at the bar, there’s a patio out back that’s a quiet space in pleasant surroundings for alfresco dining.

Drinks are a big part of the experience at the restaurant, and the wine focus is almost entirely on wines made from the Rhone varieties such as syrah, mourvedre, grenache, roussanne, marsanne, picpoul and many more. While there are a few Cotes du Rhones, there’s only one Cote-Rotie (for $265 a bottle), and one Chateauneuf-du-Pape, and that’s a white one. About 90 percent of the list is comprised of local wines made from Rhone varieties. The exceptions are the six sparkling wines made from chardonnay and pinot noir. My choice for the best bargain on the list would be the 2010 Domaine Carneros Brut for $52. It’s an excellent wine that goes with anything on the menu. Corkage is $15, or $10 if your bottle is made from Rhone varieties. If you bring a bottle and purchase one from the list, corkage will be waived.

The food menu is fun, with the kind of dishes you’d find in a country bistro in France. There’s a plat du jour that changes every Thursday and costs $38 for three courses, $50 if you pair the courses with wines. On a recent night, it included white asparagus salad, pasta with a pork sugo, and an apricot crisp or a cheese selection.

Between the bar and the door to the outside patio is a cheese bar offering cheeses, fruits and salumi samplers at varying prices. You can pick from cow’s milk, goat milk and sheep’s milk cheeses, some French, some local.

Eight ounces of Pastis-Scented Mussels ($15 ??½) carry a light anise perfume. The broth that combines the mussels’ seawater with the pastis is delicate and delicious. The salt and anise theme is repeated in the matchstick fries, disappointingly flaccid, that are served with a tarragon aioli.

Our table was impressed with the Grilled Asparagus ($13 ???) appetizer. A clutch of slender spears is wrapped in meaty, savory, cooked coppa, given a little saba, which is a reduced grape must, then paired with a chalky piece of ricotta and sprinkled with flakes of English salt.

Duck Liver Mousse ($11 ???½) was the hands-down favorite appetizer of the evening. With a texture like silk and a savory goodness touched gently by the flavor of duck liver, the mousse arrives in a small glass pot with a lid. With it are blackberry-and-black-pepper jam and slices of toasted brioche.

The Salad of the Season ($9 ???) hit all the right notes. Lots of spring greens, carrots, watermelon radish and pickled onions were dressed in a green garlic vinaigrette.

Hooray for the Grilled Cheese Sandwich ($13 ???½). Perfectly grilled bread slices are filled with St. George cheese, made in Santa Rosa, and brightened with a little tomato confit. It’s served with butter pickles and matchstick fries, this time nice and crisp.

One of the diners at our table said the Roasted ½ Chicken ($24 ???) was the best chicken she’d ever had. The white meat was perfectly juicy, the dark meat done to perfection. The sides on the entrée’s plate needed work. Panzanella turned out to be bread cubes. Peas were overripe and starchy. But that chicken - oh my!

To sum up: Casual French food and great wines make a winning combination.

Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review for the Sonoma Living section. He can be reached at jeffcox@sonic.net.

THE GIRL & THE FIG

Restaurant: 110 West Spain St., Sonoma

When: Open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. with an all-day menu, and a special brasserie menu Fridays and Saturdays from 10 to 11 p.m. Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Reservations: Call 938-3634

Price range: Expensive, with entrees from $17 to $29

Website: www.thegirlandthefig.com

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