Established 1978 (1978) Head chef Thomas Keller Rating | Current owner(s) Thomas Keller Dress code Jacket required | |
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Food type French cuisine with American influences | ||
The French Laundry is a French restaurant located in Yountville, California, in the Napa Valley. The chef and owner of the French Laundry is Thomas Keller. The restaurant building dates from 1900, and is in the National Register of Historic Places.
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The French Laundry is frequently honored by inclusion in the annual Restaurant Magazine list of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World (having been named "Best Restaurant in the World" in 2003 and 2004). Since 2006, it has been awarded three stars in the Michelin Guide to San Francisco. It received a favorable review in The New York Times and was called "the best restaurant in the world, period" by Anthony Bourdain. Since 2007, the restaurant has been the recipient of the Wine Spectator Grand Award.
In July 2014, the Napa Valley restaurant celebrated its 20th anniversary with a "six-hour feast for friends, locals, and luminaries" and temporarily closed for renovations before the end of the year. The restaurant reopened on April 7, 2015 following demolition of a number of buildings on the site. During the remainder of the renovation project, the staff is working out of a temporary kitchen.
Building history
The building was built as a saloon in the 1900s by a Scottish stonesman for Pierre Guillaume. When a law was passed in 1906 prohibiting sale of alcohol within a mile of a veteran's home, Guillaume sold the building.
In the 1920s, the building was owned by John Lande who used it as a French steam laundry, which is the origin of the restaurant's name.
In 1978, Don Schmidt; the mayor of Yountville renovated the building into a restaurant. He and his wife Sally Schmitt owned the French Laundry for much of the 1980s, and the early 1990s. In 1994, Keller bought the restaurant.
In 2004, the restaurant installed a geothermal heating and air conditioning system.
Cuisine
Every day, the French Laundry serves two different nine-course tasting menus, none of which uses the same ingredient more than once. During the holiday season, the restaurant may offer special dishes. The menu as of October 26, 2015 is $310 USD per person, not including gratuity for the base meal, not including additional supplements such as Russian caviar and truffles.
The food is mainly French with contemporary American influences, giving rise to such unique specialties as Cuisse de grenouilles sur un bâton (frog's legs on a stick).
Staff
Notable alumni of the French Laundry's kitchen staff include Grant Achatz of Alinea, Eric Ziebold of CityZen, Corey Lee of Benu, Jonathan Benno of Lincoln Ristorante, René Redzepi of Noma in Copenhagen, Clay Miller of Trummer's on Main, Ron Siegel of The Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton, and Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes. Previous Chef de Cuisine Timothy Hollingsworth won the Bocuse d'Or USA semi-finals in 2008, and represented the U.S. in the international finals in January 2009, placing sixth.
The restaurant is open for dinner every evening, and lunch is normally also served Friday through Sunday, although Friday lunch will not be offered during the current renovation project. They also typically close for 1–2 weeks each winter and summer.
Other locations
In February 2004, Thomas Keller opened the East Coast version of his Yountville restaurant, which he named Per Se. The kitchens of both restaurants are connected via a real-time video feed on a television screen.
Thomas Keller opened a pop-up restaurant in the Silverado Resort & Spa during the renovation of The French Laundry. The restaurant, which will serve American classics, is to be called Ad Lib. This is not the first pop-up restaurant that Keller has helmed, previously popping up at the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong and at Harrod's in London.