The New Era at Bistro Moulin Proves Different (and Delicious)

July 5, 2023 – Choose your own adventure, Bistro Moulin style! If you’d like to explore: 

a) How “small” stuff in a small New Monterey restaurant delivers big satisfaction, head to part 1.

b) How a lifelong-love-affair-with-restaurants can lead you home, skip to part 2.

c) How bistro translates in French and Italian, jump to part 3. 

d) How the sudden loss of an adored mom-and-pop led to a welcome reinvention, fly to part 4.

Part 1: Whole Greater than the Sum of Its Parts

A splash of Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label ($15/glass) and smoked salmon carpaccio ($26) revs appetites for full engagement. 

Fresh housemade bread with olive oil and a beautiful tray of house charcuterie ($28)—imported capocollo, finocchiona and sopressata, several European cheeses, marinated olives, taralli bread—complete the opening round of flavor.  

From there we ask our server Bridgette if she and chef Federico Rusciano might take the reins on food. 

Her smiling yes bodes well. And we soon have zero regrets. 

Alaskan halibut ($49) gets a lift from a precisely salted and crisped-up edge. The tender, slow-braised, osso-bucco-style lamb shank ($46) dives into deep, earthy and rich places without overwhelming taste buds. Thick and fluffy paccheri tubes ($28) get a blessing of ricotta and basil and lack only a spark of heat or meat (spicy ground sausage with fennel?).  

A versatile Banfi Chianti Classico ($42)—from a curated list strong with Sonoma and Santa Lucia Highlands, Napa Cabs and big Tuscan options—intertwines with each. Bridgette attends at the right moments, both polished and approachable.

A medley of crisp sorbets from Marianne’s Ice Cream and ricotta pistachio cake—which I hope they swap out for the gold standard from Cafe dal Mare—complete the ride. 

Plenty of flavors and moments—traditional and authentic and adventurous alike—take the stage, but this isn’t a star-driven performance. It’s an ensemble act born of a wealth of complementary players.

Part 2: Finding a sweet spot

Federico Rusciano orchestrates a small and smooth typhoon of activity in the closet-sized kitchen at Bistro Moulin. He and a cook tend several simmering sauce pans, oven-roasting meats, sides approaching readiness and incoming tickets at the same time.  

Then, as quickly as he flicks a filet on a plate, he pauses to greet and riff with a pair of enthusiastic eaters leaning over the sill along the open kitchen. An onlooker marvels at how he’s able to drop everything without missing a beat.

If Rusciano looks at home it’s because restaurants have always been precisely that for him. For 40 years his dad owned and operated a restaurant on the small Italian island of Capri, not far from Naples. Rusciano started doing dishes as soon as he was old enough, studying the cooks at their craft every moment he could.

“I loved the vibe, the feel, the camaraderie,” he says. “Then I get to know the customers and have the family feeling with them. It’s in my blood. I’ve never done any other kind of work.” 

That has taken him everywhere from corporate chef work managing three restaurants in Puerto Vallarta to general manager duties at Italian destination Pèppoli at Spanish Bay, where he was the restaurant’s primary ambassador for a decade. Most recently he partnered on The Pocket in Carmel, where he created a real vibe around pan-Italian cuisine and a strong wine program—being a certified sommelier, it turns out, comes in handy. 

“It’s been a beautiful journey for me, culinarily speaking,” he says. 

Still, he and his wife Sabrina, who runs the front of the house at Moulin, pined for their own project. 

So when neighborhood favorite Bistro Moulin became available, it proved to be tasty timing.

Part 3: Bistro in Italian is…bistro.

Oui oui: Bistro Moulin retains French identity. Popular staples like French onion soup, moules frites, duck confit, escargots and signature spinach gnocchi still populate the menu.

But so do pappardelle, bucatini and spaghettoni, burratina cheese Italian-style, cannelloni Italian-style and pork chops Italian-style, along with a grouping of “Old World” wines that are almost all Tuscan and entirely Italian. 

Rusciano reports 95 percent of old customers have shown “amazing support” for the new menu and look, and concedes some will always yearn for 100% French. 

The bottom line for him, he adds: “We’ve been slammed and people love the food.” 

Meanwhile the Ruscianos are making the backdrop their own, with new chairs, paint, floors, equipment, lighting, decorations and menu covers.

“I’ve been in this business for a long time,” Rusciano says. “We’re keen to what a customer needs to feel comfortable, and have invested a lot to create an upscale restaurant with affordable prices.”

Thankfully the bottom line in my book remains: the neighborhood vibe. 

That will find fresh expression with forthcoming 2-4:30pm “wine hours” featuring tapas and deals on wines by the glass. 

The emphasis for the small bites, launching at the end of the month, will be playful and experimental, with four or five regularly shifting items swooping from grilled octopus to cheese croquettes to shish kebab to specialty quesadillas.

“A mixture of cultures,” Rusciano says. “We’re thinking about crazy stuff.”

Part 4: Maybe good luck, maybe bad luck

A mix of sadness and curiosity washed over me when I saw one of my favorite places was selling restaurant furniture in local classified ads.

For years, Bistro Moulin won me over (and over again) with tangible and intangible elements: escargots and ambiance, spinach gnocchi and sweet service, wine values and good times. 

People often ask me where to go for dinner, and I have strategies to lead them in the best direction. If it’s a nice date night they’re after, Moulin lands at the top of the list.

The original good thing from Bistro Moulin’s creators, acclaimed chef Didier Dutertre and wine mastermind Colleen Manni, came to an end. A happy end, to be clear. They are now enjoying a long-deferred honeymoon while Dutertre embraces retirement and Manni moves into life as a pilates instructor. 

In fact, their opening (with only 10 tables), ensuing roller coaster twists (including their separation and a battle with life-threatening illness) and ultimate reunion (they married not too long ago) merit their own deeper story, so keep an eye out.

Most thankfully a community gem isn’t getting gobbled up by an incoming restaurant group. It’s still very much a mom and pop, with the Ruscianos’ daughter Gioia (Italian for joy) helping make that clear. She helps hold it down at the hostess stand, and has been known to ask a lot of questions and even give staff impromptu pep talks. 

“For our daughter, it’s an amazing experience to see what her parents do and how they do it,” Rusciano says. “It reminds me of my dad. He really liked me to be there and see what a labor of love it is.”

More at bistromoulin.com.