Quaint, storybook, picturesque. All words used to describe Carmel, a town along a one-mile stretch of sandy beach on the Monterey Peninsula. It attracts antiquers, artists and dog lovers. All the homes are cute little cottages and I imagine myself renting one and spending a quiet weekend baking, photographing, blogging and leaving just for meals. The restaurants fit in with the cuteness of the town and my favorite spot is La Bicyclette. I tried it out for the first time over the Fourth of the July and between the atmosphere and the food, I can’t think of any place more inviting and delicious.
It has a European vibe and reminds me of sitting in a cozy cafe in Paris. The one in particular that comes to mind is Le Breizh Café in the Marais district that serves the best galettes. I just love the simplicity and non-fussiness of the space with the rustic wooden tables and chalkboard menus.
La Bicyclette has two entrances. One opens to this darling room with little house cut outs all in a row on the left side.
On the right side are rows of hanging copper pots and chalkboard menus on the wall. I lit up when I saw Napolean on the menu. In French it’s called the millefeuille and happens to be my favorite Parisian dessert.
The other room is more spacious but maintains the European cafe feel. I can imagine its coziness in the evening with the warmth coming from the wood-burning pizza oven, which is chalkboard painted with the pizza menu listed on it.
Plates bare and in need of food. My assumption with European style food is that the portions would be small but every bite fantastic and I would leave perfectly comfortable, not gut-busting like a meal at the Cheesecake Factory so I ordered two appetizers for our table of four. Boy that was not necessary as everything was so generously sized, but then at least I got to taste additional dishes.
The roasted beet salad was such a large portion it could have been a main course. There were yellow and red beets, sweet and delicious with the Point Reyes blue cheese. The buttermilk dressing lightly coated the greens just to give them moisture and flavor. Crispy shallots were sprinkled on top.
The second appetizer was classic French because I was all caught up in the European vibe so I got wood-fired escargot. When the tray came out the buttery, hazelnut crumb topping was still bubbling and sizzling. Not exactly a diet dish but it was tasty.
The butternut squash pizza is La Bicyclette’s most talked about so I went with that. Gruyere and butternut squash puree served as the base with arugula leaves and Speck ham draped on top. I really like the simplicity of the dish. A few fresh ingredients that all complement each other and you can really taste each component. I didn’t notice it at first but there was also fried sage leaves that I ate separately and they were crisp and delicious.
The second pizza ordered was the fava bean pizza. I know everyone raves about the butternut squash but this is absolutely hands down the best flavor combination I’ve had. I’m sure I could muster up a version of this but if I could have this recipe…gosh it’d be my go-to every week.
The base of truffle pecorino was oozy and had a nice salty bite. The chew from the oyster mushrooms and crunch from the fava beans were nice as well. But the little edible purple lavender flowers really made me appreciate the attention to detail and color with all of their dishes.
We had meat lovers at the table so two of them went with the Vélo burger. I was too busy indulging in pizza but I did eat one bite for taste. It has a nice thick toasted bread bun with a fire-roasted tomato jam on top. Bacon and avocado were the accompanying ingredients to the meat. It wasn’t as exciting as the pizza but it was cooked perfectly and again everything was really fresh.
La Bicyclette
Dolores Street at 7th
Carmel-by-the-Sea
831.622.9899