French

Brunch, Coffee, Dinner, Happy Hour, Outdoor Dining, Reservations

$$

Thierry Rautureau's bistro serves up French classics—velvet chicken liver mousse, a stunning boeuf bourguignon—served with more savoir-faire than their prices would suggest. (The soufflé potato crisps, a labor-intensive appetizer yielding a crop of puffy fries with almost creamy interiors and impossibly crispy crusts, may be the best appetizer in the city.) Thus the two-room place, low-lit with Moroccan lamps, is perpetually packed and fizzy as a sexy cocktail party in full roar; the unofficial Third Place for the well-heeled neighborhoods surrounding the Madison Valley.