John M.
Yelp
This is a special occasion restaurant that I'm sure most people in Elk Grove know about by now. Zagat-rated, there's probably little that I could add to that and all the 4+ rated reviews here. It's located in a house on Elk Grove Boulevard in Old Town. Its compact space and discreet menu are a perfect fit for its Bistro intentions.
We ordered split bone marrow, golden beet salad, and duck confit to share between the two of us. The marrow was augmented by a caper sauce, and was divinely rich. The beet salad was well-balanced, sweet from the beets and dressing, tart from the dressing and grapefruit, creamy from the goat cheese, and refreshingly bitter and earthy from the contrast of the beets and frisee. The star was the duck confit sitting on a slice of pork belly in yam puree, green beans and cherry demi-glace. S had a glass of an "interesting red", a nice Syrah that was in good balance with everything, and a good choice. A lovely dinner.
Service was excellent with, by my count, at least 5 people constantly checking in on us in this small dining room, filling glasses, clearing plates, and assessing our satisfaction.
[No points off, and a minor gripe, but the bread was merely passable: great grilled with marrow smeared on it, but salty and uninteresting by itself. It's a small kitchen, so I can't imagine they'd have the resources to make their own good bread, but the limitation of not a single decent bread bakery in Elk Grove who could deliver tasty loaves to them daily diminishes us all.]
If you don't already know of this place, use whatever occasion you have to blow your budget and get here soon. I can't imagine that you'd be disappointed.
You can be sure I will be back.