Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "daniel pont"

New owners reopen La Bonne Soupe Café

2011-05-12T01:11:35Z

French chef Daniel Pont has passed his tiny La Bonne Soupe Café on to a couple who bring the same passion for French cookery.

Chef Ed Stoddard and his fiancée, Leah Brown, are not related to 72-year-old Pont, who sold them the downtown soup and sandwich shop he created and operated on his own for six years. Nor are they French.

Starting Monday, the Midtown couple will continue to offer the same gastronomic experience, following in Pont's footsteps as closely as they can. Stoddard describes the food as good, honest French cooking and the place itself as a French cookery.

"A cookery is a place where you don't just go to eat food. You go there to meet people and learn about food," he said. "This food does take a long time to cook – but it's worth it."

Pont retired April 29 after owning five restaurants and spending more than 50 years in the industry. Zagat rated his French onion soup at La Bonne Soupe Café as the best in the world in 2009. If he comes out of retirement, he said he would have a staff to work alongside him. He sold the café's concept, name and equipment.

Perhaps most surprising is that Stoddard and Brown found La Bonne Soupe Café in time to buy the business.

They discovered the café through an ad on Craigslist. But the description and location were so vague, they had no idea what it was until talking with Pont. They didn't really know much about the restaurant or its huge following. La Bonne Soupe Café is hidden behind a modest storefront at 920 Eighth St. on an obscure downtown block.

Several others also wanted to buy the café. Two people later made offers to buy the business from the couple. Stoddard believes his commitment to good French cooking and the way he makes stock with roasted bones and meat convinced Pont to sell the café to them.

Stoddard and Brown replaced a sink and art on the walls, but little else. La Bonne Soupe Café had a soft re-opening Monday and Tuesday.

However, problems with a refrigerator, meat slicer and plumbing cropped up Wednesday morning. The couple posted a sign on the door and temporarily closed the café to give them time to repair or buy a new commercial fridge, repair plumbing, replace a second sink and buy a heavy-duty slicer.

The café's charming yellow and red interior and even the phone number – 492-9506 – will stay the same.

The small menu of $4 soups, $6-$7 sandwiches and $5 salads will seem nearly identical. The new menu will keep a customer favorite, Pont's brie and prosciutto sandwich, a variation of Pont's famous French onion soup, and braised meat sandwiches. The rest will be variations of Pont's offerings. Stoddard will reintroduce wild game such as boar and antelope to the menu.

The dishes will be based on his own recipes, with improvisation. The café won't use any of Pont's recipes.

"You don't buy the chef," Stoddard said.

The locavore restaurant will reflect the couple's commitment to eating locally produced food. The dishes will be made using only organic produce, with Stoddard picking up 90 percent of the produce at local farmers markets or ethnic food stores.

Meats from free-range animals will come from local and non-local sources. He'll travel to the Bay Area to buy fresh seafood for soups and sandwiches each week.

The food will also have "integrity." If the menu says it came from a certain location or company, it does, Stoddard said.

He and Brown are working out a plan to deliver groceries at night by car and bike or skateboard to work downtown each day.

Stoddard has worked in restaurants since he was 13, when he cut wood for a restaurant in an upstate New York spa town, Ballston Spa. At 16, he began apprenticing with a chef who taught him to cook. Stoddard returned to the restaurant business after a stint in the Marine Corps.

He moved to Sacramento in 1991 to train as a sous chef in the kitchen at the private Capitol Club in the Renaissance Tower – just steps away from his new location. Stoddard also worked at Bernice's Cookery and Ella in Sacramento. He developed the menus and was the catering chef at Morgan Creek Golf Club in Roseville.

La Bonne Soupe Café is his first restaurant. Two changes they'll implement: the café will now be a two-person operation, and Brown, the general manager, will deliver meals to tables after taking orders at the small counter.

Customers can still watch the chef in action just behind the counter.

"People like to see the cook cut things – just put on a show," he said. "Everybody's going to see my secret sauce."

They still expect a line to form inside and outside down the sidewalk. Stoddard hopes to hire a classical guitarist to play for customers during lunch once or twice a week.

The couple will add a second outside table but keep just six small tables inside. They'd like to add a sidewalk produce stand. The hours initially will be just slightly extended, from 10:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Within two months, Stoddard and Brown hope to add breakfast and coffee and open at 7:30 a.m. They also may open on Saturdays. For now, Stoddard is offering guerrilla or underground dining on Saturday nights: Parties of up to 20 people can reserve the spot for private dinners.

Pont is still very much a part of the place. He stopped by with his family Sunday night. He wanted to check on them as they prepared for their soft opening the next morning.

"He said, 'You better be serious,' " Stoddard recalled. "He just cares so much."

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

La Bonne Soupe Café chef bids adieu

2011-04-29T23:45:30Z

The man once dubbed “The Soup Ami” by local media said goodbye to his loyal customers for the last time at downtown’s La Bonne Soupe Café Friday as he retired from a restaurant career that spanned 55 years and two continents.

Daniel Pont, 72, said his retirement is bittersweet, since he loved operating his one-man shop on Eighth Street between I and J streets for the past six years. But he wants to spend time with his family.

“I will probably take the next week and just rest,” he said in the small café Friday afternoon while a handful of customers hung around, sharing wine and thanking him for good times. “No driving, no working – just swimming pool, eating and sleeping.”

He sold his business to a young couple, and he said much of it will remain the same, but he’s hanging onto his recipes.

“I advised them to keep the same concept because it works,” he said. “If I was 10 years younger, I would franchise (the business). I told them to make good food and be nice to the people, because without customers, you have no business.”

The Frenchman is originally from Lyon, and he came to the United States by way of Paris. He worked in Chicago before coming to California. He arrived in Sacramento six years ago.

His daughter and his grandchildren, 7-year-old Sofia and 5-year-old Benjamin, live in Folsom. Pont said he will continue living in the United States, close to them.

Despite the 12-hour days, five days a week that running the business required, Pont said leaving it is sad.

“I liked my customers very much, and I really enjoy what I do,” he said. “But I can’t stop the clock. When you get older, even if your mind is focused, your body can’t always keep up.”

Pont said that when he started the business, he had no idea how much work it would take, and he described it as the hardest job he’s ever had, but one he’s thoroughly enjoyed.

The announcement that he was retiring wasn’t a grand affair – just a simple sign on the door, signed, “Le Chef.”

Some customers Friday afternoon did everything they could to snag one last sandwich.

“I waited an hour and a half in line, and it was worth it,” said Art Scotland, a retired presiding justice who still does some work on Capitol Mall. “It’s not only a great lunch – he’s a maestro of the food. It’s entertainment as well as a wonderful meal from a delightful host.”

Scotland said he went to the café for the last three days in a row for his favorite sandwiches, which included the brie and prosciutto, the lamb and the braised pork.

“And the soups were excellent too,” he added. “It’s extraordinarily good food, an interesting ambiance, and the French music in the background made it such a unique small little café.”

Another customer, Sacramentan Emily Perez, said she has been going to the café for two or three years.

“I’m heartbroken,” she said when she learned of Pont’s retirement, adding that she’ll miss the brie and apple sandwich.

“He always used good-quality ingredients. You can tell when it’s good quality versus when someone uses a lot of salt and sugar to make it taste good,” she said.

Perez added that she enjoyed watching the precision with which Pont prepared the food.

“You could tell he had really good training,” she said.

Pont said he will pass on his cooking skills to his grandchildren, whom he will teach in his own kitchen.

And it’s possible, he said, that he will make a return to the restaurant scene, but in a less-rigorous role.

“If I come back, I will be the owner and have a staff,” he said.

Sacramento artist Karen O’Haire brought Pont a special gift Friday afternoon – a painting of La Bonne Soupe Café.

“I painted that for a plein air (show) in 2009,” she said. “We had to pick our favorite places, and I stood across the street and painted it. He’s just wonderful. It’s a sad loss.”

When he received the painting, Pont smiled and said, “La Bonne Soupe will live forever now.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @brandon_darnell.

La Bonne Soupe reopens Wednesday

2009-10-14T05:01:33Z

A clean bill of health and an outpouring of customer support have prompted the reopening of a wildly popular downtown lunch spot, La Bonne Soupe Café.

On Wednesday, owner Daniel Pont will resume serving the French onion soup Zagat rated as the best in the world only months ago, as well as the sandwiches and other food that earned his restaurant Zagat's top rating in Sacramento.

The cafe passed a Sacramento County health reinspection Friday, nine days after a restaurant inspector closed it upon finding cockroaches.

Pont, a renowned 70-year-old French chef, said Tuesday he's recovering from the stress and heartbreak that landed him in the hospital just before the first scheduled reinspection. He spent all day Tuesday preparing to reopen the restaurant he first opened in 2005.

"Today, I came here to see how it is to work," he said. "I cooked for the family today. So I was happy to be in the kitchen again."

The restaurant had been closed for about three weeks before the initial inspection -- initially for a vacation, but then while Pont tended to his wife, who had become sick and spent several days in the hospital.

The closure and Pont's collapse pushed loyal customers to rally to his defense. While a for-sale sign quickly went up, customers left flowers and cards outside the restaurant. They sent emails and filled his answering machine with their calls. They phoned Sacramento County's restaurant inspection program to complain. They even volunteered legal assistance or help at the cafe.

"They were wonderful and that's one of the reasons I stopped the sale, for now," Pont said.

Mark Urquhart-Webb, a program manager with California Air Resources Board, stopped by the cafe at 920 8th St. to read the messages left by well-wishers. He and his wife had enjoyed the French food cooked and served by Pont, who runs the restaurant alone.

"It took nearly the full hour to get served. The food was just fabulous," Urquhart-Webb said. "It's not a Subway moment at all."

His friend, Raphael Hitzke, won a "Best of Best Film Award" at the Tucson Slow Food Film Festival with the documentary, Vive La Food!, featuring Pont and William Rolle, another French chef operating a one-man show, in East Sacramento.

Signs on the door said, "Nous t'adorons Chef Daniel," and "If and when you decide to reopen, we will be waiting for you."

Pont has worked in all facets of the hospitality industry for 52 years. His grandparents taught him to make bread and butter after the family survived World War II in France.

He opened his first restaurant, Le Ranch House, in Sonoma in the early 1970s. He went on to open Chez Daniel, La Maconais and La Maison, all in the Bay Area.

He retired, then he and his wife moved to the Folsom-El Dorado area five years ago to be close to their daughter and her family. Pont left retirement to open the cafe downtown.

Customers soon packed the tiny cafe, where Pont worked 60 hours a week, including Saturdays when he'd go in to deep clean. A small counter was the only thing separating him from customers who watched him prepare their meals, one at a time. The line outside grew longer and started earlier as word of the restaurant spread. Regulars knew they had to turn up by 11 a.m. to avoid the worst of the lunch rush.

It was at 10:40 a.m. one day that an inspector showed up in Pont's last minutes of preparation. Pont felt he was treated disrespectfully by a young inspector who refused to come back after the lunch rush. He's never been treated rudely or cited for any other problems in 70 health inspections at five restaurants, he said.

"We are not students here. A restaurant that never had any violations should not be treated the same as one that constantly has problems," he said. "They hurt me badly and I have to put it behind me."

Some people have said they thought the inspection was prompted by a complaint — possibly from someone jealous of Pont's Zagat rating.

However, John Rogers, the county's environmental health division chief, said the surprise inspection was routine and not initiated by any calls or complaints.

A copy of the inspection report shows that the inspector was on the premises from 10:40 a.m. to noon. The inspector tried to pull Pont aside but Pont said he couldn't and refused to talk to the inspector, Rogers said, adding there was no other verbal communication from the inspector.

Inspectors, who are now visiting restaurants three times a year, must inspect in the morning at least once a year to see whether people are using proper cooking temperatures and food-handling practice, as well as the cleanliness of the facility.

"We advise staff not to go in the middle of lunch. It's too hectic," Rogers said.

A supervisor present for the reinspection Friday agreed the annual morning inspection would be conducted much earlier from now on, and be finished before Pont opens at 10:30 a.m.

"It's a difficult situation to be in for all parties, and we do it as respectfully as we can," he said. "We understand we're coming into their place of business ... and that they own this establishment. They have some ownership and some pride, and people need to be treated in respect."

Pont took down a for-sale sign but said diners will have to decide the future of the restaurant.

"It's up to the customers," he said.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.