Bistro in the country

Occidental, California, May 5, 2012—

FRIENDS FROM HAWAII are visiting, staying in an inn out in the nearby village of Occidental; we drove out to see them today and dine once again in that town's bistro. Occidental was famous for decades for its old-fashioned "Italian" or "Basque" Sunday dinners, at the old Union and Occidental hotels, where you got soup, salad, roast beef or chicken, and ice cream, served out family style at long tables, and counted yourself lucky to be eating out. That was when I was a boy, in the 1950s.

Times are different, of course, and while that alternative may still be available — I'm not sure, and have lost interest — there's also a bistro in town. We stopped in a number of years ago but haven't been back until today. I had a huge butter lettuce salad, a whole lettuce to myself, soft and silky and fresh as paint, with a Green Goddess sort of dressing; and then steak-frites, hanger steak nicely grilled but woefully undersalted, with good equally unsalted fries and a nice tarragon-flavored but otherwise mild aïoli, and tasty buttery spinach on the side. Others shared a Tarte Tatin for dessert, with a puff-paste shell that seemed a little over-baked (and pre-baked, for that matter). Nice place, but infernally noisy.

Pinot noir, Radio-Coteau "Alberigi" (Russian River Valley), 2005(fine varietal, deep, rich, and mature; a little too alcoholic): thanks, Norman!

• Bistro des Copains, 3782 Bohemian Highway Occidental, California; (707) 874-2436