Vienna is the little culinary hot spot that could. Though the town is known for its bank-dotted landscape, diners can find just as many interesting restaurants as financial institutions. Whether they’re in search of Nepalese or Szechuan, British or Lithuanian, there’s something to love right downtown.
Much of that community is based on or near Church Street. “It’s like a Hallmark street,” says Nancy Sabbagh. “I get goosebumps just thinking about it. People are kind. They’ve got their kids going to the bread store, and there’s a barber across the street. They open doors, they lend a hand and help you.”
It’s on Church Street that Sabbagh and her husband, famed chef Roberto Donna, opened Roberto’s Ristorante Italiano in 2022. When pan-Latin Blend 111 just down the street closed the following year, it was an easy decision to take the space, the couple says. They originally hoped to make it a pizzeria, but the pair realized that what they really missed from their years in DC was a French bistro.
Donna gave Sabbagh two weeks to transform the vacant restaurant into precisely that. It opened in September as a six-month pop-up. “I don’t think it’s going to be a pop-up,” Donna now says. “Things are looking good for us. We’re going to keep our options open, but it looks like Le Bistro.”
“We hope. It seems like everyone likes it,” Sabbagh says.
What’s not to like? Donna has joined forces with longtime collaborator Stephen Scott as chef de cuisine, as well as an anonymous helper he calls his “secret weapon,” a retired chef who had two Michelin stars in his native France.
“It’s really an emotional journey,” says Sabbagh of seeing the three from different eras working together. “It’s creating something that will be beautiful for the diner.”
And in most cases, it is. Across our visits, there appeared to be some chaos in the kitchen, with shouting audible in the dining room, reflected in long wait times for entrées. Happily, what emerges is almost uniformly worth the wait.
In Paris, many bistros have become more ambitious, with new preparations of old favorites and more innovative dishes. But time stands still at Le Bistro, where the menu is nearly identical to the places where I ate when I first experienced Paris in 1993. All that’s missing is a glass bottle of Pschitt, my favorite French soft drink for both its name and its flavor.
Starters come out with speed appropriate for a bistro experience. The complimentary bread service isn’t on the lofty level of the assortment at Roberto’s (my favorite thing about that restaurant), but the pleasing portions of freshly toasted baguette are accompanied by soft rosettes of chive butter.
The onion soup gratin is a standard done well, as is the bacon-greased salade Lyonnaise with its soft-boiled egg that oozes over the lightly dressed frisée. But the best starter is the wild mushroom mille-feuille. Its puff pastry is stuffed with mushrooms, yes, but also caramelized onions and just enough goat cheese to bestow it with a jangly zip. It’s surrounded in dollops of hazelnut cream that amplify the appeal of the toasted nuts scattered over the top of the pastry.
One of Le Bistro’s greatest assets is its reasonable prices. At $17, the mille-feuille is the most expensive appetizer. Entrées top out at $30. For a French restaurant in our region, that’s a bargain. “The portions are not too big,” says Donna. “They have ingredients that allow us to do it.”
But that doesn’t mean the kitchen skimps on quality. The steak frites is thinly pounded beef tenderloin so the grill-licked meat melts beneath its compound butter topping. The frites? They’re salty, crisp, and paired with a petite salade. The potatoes are even better with the crunchy-skinned duck confit. That’s because the cubes are cooked in duck fat. A tiny pitcher of red wine reduction may be a case of gilding a meaty lily, but what’s wrong with that?
Stews are standouts at Le Bistro. The navarin of lamb features tenderloin that’s left with a pink center and a whiff of rosemary, paired with toothsome lentils and soft carrots and potatoes. It can’t compete with the memorable beef Bourguignon. The tender beef and vegetables are bathed in a sauce that finds an ideal balance between savory garlicky notes and compelling sweetness. Like much of the menu, bacon fat is responsible for some of the magic, too.
Desserts can feel like an afterthought at Le Bistro, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t order them. The chocolate tart is more bitter than sweet, creating the impression more of an error than a sophisticated dessert. The Paris-Brest is Donna’s favorite, he says. The choux pastry, filled with praline cream and showered with toasted almonds, is one of those things that’s always worth indulging in, and this version is no different.
However, when I return, I’ll be most likely to order the snow eggs. Also known as a floating island, the puff of meringue in a sea of crème anglaise is a hard-to-find treat that conjures days in bistros long before my own experience at the end of the 20th century. Covered in caramel sauce and almonds, it’s not the most delicate version I’ve tried, but perhaps the froufrou dessert could use a little bit more rough and tumble, anyway.
Le Bistro makes me wish that Vienna’s Church Street were my neighborhood. But I’ll make the trek almost as frequently as if it were for bistro fare that is likely to become far more of a staple than a pop-up.
Le Bistro
Rating: ★★★ 1/2
See This: Remember Blend 111? Its modern-but-cozy space serves as a template for Le Bistro, just add French alcohol posters.
Eat This: Wild mushroom mille-feuille, beef Bourguignon, snow eggs
Appetizers: $13–$17
Entrées: $24–$30
Dessert: $9–$12
Open daily for lunch and brunch Friday through Sunday and dinner Tuesday through Sunday.
111 Church St. NW, Ste. 101, Vienna, lebistrova.com
Feature image by Shannon Ayres
This story originally ran in our February issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
