Bistro masters

Alicia Robinson

When that rumble in your belly means you want to wash down a piece of

roasted gazelle with a glass of fine wine, there’s a place in Newport

Beach that can meet your culinary needs.

One of the city’s best-kept dining secrets, the husband-and-wife

team that runs Bistro le Crillon is swimming against the tide of

chain restaurant meals most Americans have grown accustomed to.

“We don’t do, here, corporate food,” co-owner Diego Ostroski said.

He selects the wines for the restaurant’s 40,000-bottle wine

cellar. His wife, Chantal Berton de Crillon, is the restaurant’s

chef. Their European-flavored eatery has been nestled in the

Eastbluff shopping center for 11 years, and it was recently given

Wine Spectator magazine’s Best Award of Excellence for 2004.

“Since I lived in Italy and France, I like touring all the

wineries,” Ostroski said. “It’s an acquired taste. I started

collecting wines over 30 years ago.”

The restaurant’s table wine is one his wife’s family has been

making since 1515.

When asked, Ostroski won’t say whether European wines have any

advantages or if California-grown grapes are just as good.

“You cannot compare,” he said. “They’re all good on their own.

That’s like saying, ‘Which is better, a brunet or a blond or a

black-[haired] girl?’”

De Crillon got her start as a chef in her native France, and

though the couple ran a restaurant when they lived in New York City,

it was more of a walk-in pizza place, where as many people would pass

by in a day as live in Newport Beach.

Now she gets to use the full range of her skills to create

sophisticated Provencal cuisine using fresh, seasonal ingredients she

buys at farmers’ markets. Bistro le Crillon’s menu includes

traditional French offerings such as escargot or lobster bisque as

well as young chicken, grilled and served with green apple puree, or

filet mignon with foie gras and black truffles.

She has picked up some Southern California influences, making her

food a little lighter than traditional French dishes because of the

hot weather, but she and her husband have battled other urban

American pressures. People here, they both noted, sometimes just see

food as fuel to get them through the day rather than something to be

experimented with and savored.

“I want my customer first to be happy, to enjoy the meal, the

wine, and to remember this place and feel like [they’re] at home,” de

Crillon said.

The biggest challenge has been letting people know about their

cozy little bistro, which they recently renovated, fixing up the

patio with plants and an awning to shelter it and adding new wine

storage.

“It’s an off-the-road shopping center, so it’s really difficult

for people to find us, and that’s after 11 years,” Ostroski said.

But they’re both doing what they love, and Ostroski doesn’t regret

leaving New York despite the comparative lack of exposure for his

business.

While the couple are not quite ready to retire, they wanted to

take life a little easier, Ostroski said.

Also, he joked, “the coast here is much nicer than Coney Island.”

Bistro le Crillon is open for dinner Monday through Saturday at

the Eastbluff Shopping Center, 2523 Eastbluff Drive, Newport Beach.