Sometimes it feels like every other restaurant opening up wants to serve comfort food: comfort food “with a twist,” comfort food from Germany, Korea or the American south, comforting pasta and pizza. Comforting cheese curds.
But the food that comforts me when the world seems to be falling down around my ears rarely comes from a restaurant. It comes from a home kitchen, usually my own.
So it’s been a joy — and yes, a comfort — to rediscover the space that was recently Chez Nanou transformed into a little café that feels like going to a friend’s house for a casual dinner.
La Kitchenette opened on Sept. 20 at 805 Williamson St. in an old brick house that has been a restaurant for decades — Out to Lunch Café for awhile in the ’90s, then Greg Johnson’s Bon Appetit Café, then Chez Nanou starting part-time in 2012.
La Kitchenette took the place of Chez Nanou on Willy Street at the end of the summer.
SAIYNA BASHIR, THE CAPITAL TIMES
Now the little kitchen is the home of Virginie Ok, a Parisian who moved to Madison with her boyfriend and quickly apprenticed herself in Anne-Marie Rieunier’s tiny kitchen. Ok previously worked in the cosmetics industry and has no professional training, but she comes from a culinary family and has “always loved cooking.”
The cuisine at Kitchenette remains rustic, homey French, more weeknight supper than Parisian bistro. There are crepes savory and sweet both folded and rolled, sandwiches (croq) served open-face or topped with brûléed cheese, and satisfying, substantial dinner entrees.
Chicken doria ($15) felt like the kind of thing I might improvise the day after Thanksgiving, a casserole with cooked rice, scallions and nubbins of bacon all covered in broiled cheese. It was bland, soft and ridiculously comforting.
The Basque Croq sandwich at La Kitchenette includes roasted tomatoes, marinated red bell pepper, arugula and broiled Swiss cheese with a side of greens and persillade (parsley) potatoes.
PHOTO BY SAIYNA BASHIR
Chicken in another guise, poulet a la Normande ($15), would never make it to leftovers. Tender chicken legs fairly melted in a cider/mustard sauce, which rustic persillade (parsley) potatoes happily soaked up.
Béchamel, that rich and creamy French mother sauce, made the inside of some savory crepes ($12) look almost like stew. In the Parisienne with ham, gruyere, mushrooms and green onion, it gave everything a center-of-a-chicken-pot-pie quality.
A “wrap-and-roll” buckwheat crepe called the biquette (goat, $10) was simpler and fresher at lunch, with tangy goat cheese, sweet-savory tomatoes and fresh spinach.
The crepes on the menu, not to mention Rieunier’s delicate lavender crème brûlée ($7), should please Nanou’s Francophile regulars. But Ok hasn’t kept everything the same.
Virginie Ok owns La Kitchenette on Willy Street.
PHOTO BY SAIYNA BASHIR
She changed up the recipe for the French onion soup ($6), which by the time it reached the table was about one-third actual soup, the rest having seeped into a crown of bread cubes and melted cheese.
It’s the richest version of this dish I’ve found in Madison, the top still toasty brown, the bottom softening in savory broth.
Ok redesigned the café’s interior to make it more contemporary and young. Gone are the flowery borders and kitschy Eiffel Tower accents that made Chez Nanou feel touristy (sorry, Nanou!).
In their place, exposed bulbs and pots of succulents hang from thick, fraying ropes. A collection of first customer Polaroids send well-wishes from an entry wall, proto-Instagram style.
One whole wall is now a floor-to-ceiling chalkboard covered in weekly specials, a map of France and sketches of radishes and raspberries. Friendly, French-accented staff are quick to bring pots of tea ($3), refill water glasses and explain the menu.
La Kitchenette was as cozy for dinner as it was cheerful at brunch, made happier by a cappuccino ($3.50) and a generous folded half-moon of spinach and bacon omelette ($12) with goat cheese tucked into the crease.
The acidule tartine at La Kitchenette is Madison Sourdough miche topped with smoked salmon, pickled radish, cucumber and homemade mayonnaise.
PHOTO BY SAIYNA BASHIR
Tartines ($9-$12), open-faced rustic sandwiches, appeared on the brunch menu as petit dejeuner, adapted for the morning with scrambled eggs and roasted tomatoes.
Thick slices of miche from Madison Sourdough Company formed the base, a sourdough so well-endowed with crust it barely needed toasting. Perhaps I’d have thought to put slices of avocado, thin slivers of red onion and a couple sunny side up eggs on my toast ($9), but it wouldn’t look nearly as pretty as Kitchenette’s.
For this and for a lunch tartine with smoked salmon and pickled radish ($11), Ok made the Dijon mayonnaise in house. The pale yellow drops caught the light and gave each sandwich a zip of acidity and richness.
The Basque Croq sandwich at La Kitchenette includes roasted tomatoes, marinated red bell pepper, arugula and broiled Swiss cheese with a side of greens and persillade (parsley) potatoes.
PHOTO BY SAIYNA BASHIR
This isn’t the kind of formal French dining where waiters carefully course out the meal. Still, spring mix tossed in vinaigrette appeared on every plate, a post-entree palate cleanser.
If the savory cooking feels like we’ve just acquired a great Aunt Clotilde to feed us good things on blustery winter days, at dessert it looks like Aunt C studied pastry at Le Cordon Bleu.
For her showstopper, Ok deconstructed a traditional poached pear dessert called poire belle Hélène ($8). Marble-sized spheres of pear poached in a cinnamon lemon syrup are set off by crispy, wispy tuile cookies, a long bar of chocolate ganache, light pear sorbet and almond crumble, with a few bites of vanilla ice cream at one end. It’s ambitious and a delightful surprise.
La Kitchenette reinvents a classic poached pear dessert with its poire belle Hélène revisitée.
PHOTO BY SAIYNA BASHIR
The French dessert called café gourmand ($7) is simply espresso with a trio of mini desserts that change on the chef’s whim, say a banana cake trifle in a juice glass, a tiny dark chocolate pot de crème and a miniature lemon curd crepe.
Just enough sweet things (and perfect for sharing), it’s a trend that has caught on in cities like New York, Chicago and Houston. Please let Madison be next.
La Kitchenette recently got a liquor license, and the all-French wine list is short and well-priced ($7-$11). With this food, a crisp Alsatian riesling ($10) or a spicy cabernet franc from Chinon ($11) should be just the thing for a generous, comforting dinner.
Dining and Cooking