This is a blog featuring my personal stories of food, gardening, yachting, photography, travel and life.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Du Jour Bistro to Close


The end of an era will occur when Du Jour Bistro closes its kitchen on Cornwall Avenue in downtown Bellingham at the end of the month. One of the small handful of restaurants in the Bellingham area that offer a consistently exceptional dining experience, Du Jour had the special distinction of also being a great place to purchase a bottle of wine and then enjoy it at your table. The Vines is the in-house wine shop for the Bistro.

On more than one occasion I and my guests have walked out with several bottles of a wine we were especially impressed with during our dinner. With a very modest $5 corkage fee, and a wide variety of wines at retail price, as opposed to highly marked up restaurant prices, a nice bottle of wine with your dinner becomes very reasonable.

But the food has always been a fabulous reason to visit Du Jour Bistro. The French influenced bistro with a Northwest flair offers locally sourced organic foods whenever possible. Chef Mike Petersen, highly knowledgeable about wines with plenty of suggestions and ready to make special orders, has great talent with his saucing and creative combinations of fresh northwest seafood, lamb, beef and locally grown vegetables.

I am especially partial to the bacon-wrapped dates and the wild mushroom risotto small plates.

The Lamb Osso Bucco is so moist and flavorful. My wife's recent flat iron steak special with a soy-chipotle marinade was melt in the mouth. I have enjoyed a tomato sauce with succulent scallops and shrimp as well. It's just all good and too sad that it has to come to an end.

My advice, get over to the Du Jour Bistro at least one more time before it closes its doors for the final time. You won't be disappointed. And take home a bottle of wine or two as well.