Michel Bistro, a new Provencal-style French brasserie, is just about ready to launch in Oakland’s Grand-Lake neighborhood.
Germain Michel and partner Jean-Michel Fabregon’s 60-seat restaurant is set to debut early next week, pending the final inspection, at 3343 Lakeshore Avenue. Executive chef Anthony Salguero, whose resume includes stints at Saratoga’s Michelin-starred Plumed Horse and San Francisco’s Commonwealth and Saison, plans to offer traditional French bistro/brasserie fare with California influences.
Among the items on the 26-year-old’s opening day menu are vol au vent Burgundy escargots and mushrooms in puff pastry; bone marrow with horse radish and wild sorrel on brioche; and bison tartar with capers and quail egg for starters. For entrees, there will be a lamb burger; trout Lyonnais with green almonds and dandelion; and forbidden rice risotto with spring vegetables and crème fraiche. Brunch menu options range from oysters and a burger to duck confit and a croque monsieur.
There will be a full bar, also with a heavy French influence, including a cocktail program designed by Fabregon centered around ten or so different kinds of pastis, an anise-flavored liqueur and apéritif popular in the south of France. It’ll be an all-French wine list, too, uniquely divided according to French classification (from cheaper country-style VDP vin de pays wines to more expensive premier cru options). That list will also soon include selections from a small winery that Michel recently founded in the Minervois region of southern France.
At just 33 years old, Michel seems to be a man who gets things done: in addition to his winery and upcoming bistro, he founded Amelie Wine Bar on Polk Street in San Francisco in 2006 and a sister location in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 2012. Michel Bistro will be open for dinner and weekend brunch to start, with lunch service coming later.
Michel Bistro: 3343 Lakeshore Avenue, facebook.com/pages/Michel/568358129922319