With Bell's On - Boil. Fry. Bake

A review of Bell’s Restaurant in Los Alamos

John and I have been threatening for years to go to Thomas Keller’s French Laundry up in Napa. Way back when, you had to phone at midnight 30 days before the day you wanted for your dining experience, or be an Amex black card holder, or know someone important, or join a wait list. And we did get in via the wait list. That was when it was about $200 a person for the multi-course prix fixe menu and we were bringing our then-5-year-old. We did not go. The schedule just didn’t work. Always tough during the summer because of our Paris tour business.

For John’s birthday this year, it was past time to try the place. Nowadays you just choose a date in their calendar, put yourself on the list, and wait to be notified that a place opened up. It’s $440 a person now without drinks. I signed up for Memorial Day. Got in. Late May, got in. June 25, 27, 28. Got in. Pro tip. You are going to get in. Thomas Keller does not cook there anymore, and we were starting to feel like bridge-and-tunnel kids who got into the club after the beautiful people had long ago moved on to the Amsterdam deejay in That Basement You Had to Know About.

We have had amazing food in Manhattan (Balthazar in its prime), a random Alain Ducasse private meal in a clubby upstairs room with just ten tables in Paris back in 2010 or so, a multi-course meal at the nicest hotel in Champagne. The latter two were for business. I had meanwhile started researching where ex Thomas Keller chefs had ended up. Let’s be there ahead for once instead of behind! Keep in mind we are Top Chef watchers (I love it, John tolerates it.). He hated Padma, now misses her. Complicated guy.

I found Bell’s in Los Alamos, which is not in New Mexico, but 20 minutes north of Los Olivos in Santa Barbara County. 90 minutes north of us with no traffic. I looked at the website, learned about Daisy and Greg Ryan’s history at Keller’s Per Se in New York, and decided we had to try it. I picked a time on John’s actual birthday weekend and got right in. Was that good or bad?

You know the pressure of a birthday dinner. It can be laughably bad and make a funny story, it can be adequate (the worst), or amazing (oh so rare). John decided his birthday weekend, part of the general birthday week philosophy we have around here, would involve adding to our Santa Barbara County wine collection, and not by going to Total Wine. We slugged through Saturday noon traffic, exchanging “we should have left earlier” barbs. Coupledom.

You pass through strawberry fields, avocado groves, the towns of Oxnard, Ventura, Carpinteria, take a winding road inland, skip Ojai (yes, we love Ojai), skip Solvang (Danish adorableness and pastries), skip Buellton (pea soup fame, for some reason) Chumash Casino (not our thing) and get to the very cute little western town where you can taste and buy lots of great wines and everyone stops serving at 5. It is not a party town. And anyway, dinner was to be at 5.

We found parking (it is not hard) on the “new” side of town and commenced visiting favorites like Dragonette, Donnachadh, Storm and Holus Bolus.

We worked on a puzzle in one tasting room, and, at another spot, petted a winemaker’s puggle as he discussed his grapes, harvesting, and his eminent wife, one of only 300 Masters of Wine on the planet. Her pet project wine is called Wine Slut. We bought two bottles of this fun and tasty red. Of course.

The tension was building, and also, we wanted to avoid being too tipsy. It was time to eat. We passed through a pretty valley of vines and found easy parking in Los Alamos. Stopped in a tumbledown tasting room with a crotchety server. Not the fun kind of crotchety. The crotchety kind of crotchety. Gladly moved on to Bell’s, which was right next door. Greeted like family, given the best table and presented with menus that said “Happy Birthday”. Aaaah. They thought it was The Day. John cutely changed the date.

It’s $110 a person. Drinks additional. No cocktails, beer and wine only. We let our server choose a crisp white for me and an interesting red for John. The waiter was a food nerd in his 40’s who had gone to culinary school and worked kitchens in Austin. He had lived in and around Houston. We discussed this. “That’s real life. This is not real life.” I knew what he meant, and I knew he meant it as a compliment. As if he was pinching himself he worked here.

Our opener of caviar and sea urchin came. Server said “cut in half, don’t just down it.” Good advice. Amazing. On to bread, cultured butter (the Romans loved cultured butter – it verges on sour, not for everyone) and local lettuce. Too simple? Not a chance. It was great.

Then we picked two of three choices of all the courses so we could spread our bets. Anchovy and peaches? It more than works. Shrimp on a garbanzo bean pillow? So great. John proclaimed the tortellini the best he had ever had. Our waiter said with his slight twang, “well Daisy does love vegetables.” We discussed how blue the steak should be and John got persuaded off blue and into rare. The steak was perfect. Desserts had a house signature of sweet, salt and spice – a pimento cracker, for example, with sweet plums.

The meal finished with a slice of vanilla cake with a candle. John made a wish. A nearby mom sang in a whisper to her 30ish son who did not want a loud Happy Birthday – we counted three birthdays at least. It’s that kind of restaurant. Friendly but for special times.

John’s assessment “best restaurant meal I have had in America. ” Me: “they are true perfectionists, but friendly about it – thankfully”. Bell’s has lunch from 11 to 3 and dinner from 5 to 8:30. Dinner is only prix fixe, with choices that can please meat people and veggie people. Lunch is a la carte. Food is French-California fusion, designed for wine pairing.

Highly recommend.

Address: 406 Bell Street, Los Alamos, CA 93440

Website: www.bellsrestaurant.com