By Leeanne Griffin L’Ostal, with Provençal menu, to open in Darien
COVID-19 took Jared Sippel’s career in an unexpected direction, but it’s Darien’s gain. The chefowner plans to open Restaurant L’Ostal, his new Provençal restaurant, on Center Street April 6.
L’Ostal celebrates the cuisines of Southern France and its boundaries, inspired by Sippel’s year abroad working in Provence at Michelin-starred L’Oustau de Baumanière and at other Italian Michelin restaurants in Friuli and Veneto.
In the U.S., Sippel’s career has taken him from Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder to Quince in San Francisco and eventually to New York, where he opened Trattoria Italienne in 2016. Four years later, the city’s mandatory pandemic-related shutdown closed Italienne for good.
“We were already looking for houses here [in Connecticut],” Sippel said, as his wife is from the Riverside section of Greenwich. But he’d planned to commute back to the city for work. As the pandemic continued, he realized it was a “dead end street,” and a few months later began looking for restaurant spaces in Westport, Greenwich and other surrounding towns.
On Nov. 1, he took possession of the former Darien Grille, better known as the Backstreet Restaurant for many years. The space can seat 48 inside and 30 outdoors on a patio at full capacity, he said.
Sippel described L’Ostal’s Provençal cuisine as Southern French, with a bit of Italian and Spanish influence.
“Provençal is much more Italian than it is what people think of as French [cuisine],” he said. “[Provence] borders Piedmont and Liguria, so it’s all olive-oil driven cuisine, vegetables, garlic and tomatoes. It’s not cream and butter and heavy, rich food.”
L’Ostal’s menu starts with “beginnings” — snacks like olives with herbes de provence, gigante beans in vinaigrette, escargot and Spanish boquerones. Cheese and charcuterie offerings include burrata, foie gras torchon, prosciutto San Daniele, potted salmon rillette and a selection of three cheeses from Ken Skovron, the owner of Darien Cheese & Fine Foods. (Sippel said he chose to work with Skovron because of the “pristine” care he takes with his cheese inventory.)
First-course plates ($13 to $18) include diver scallop crudo, vichyssoise, Provençal garden vegetables with black truffle and Barolo vinegar, and sformato, a spring onion flan with English pea and pancetta ragout. Pastas ($15 to $25), like a egg tagliatelle with morel mushroom, potato gnocchi and spaghetti with rock shrimp, are available in small and large portions.
Entrees ($29 to $36) include grilled ocean trout, local wild striped bass, Moroccan spiced spring lamb and NY duck. Sippel said he plans to change the menu with the seasons, but will use a specials board to present items like fresh fish options or large-format steaks.
The opening wine list focuses on French and Italian selections, and will grow with time, Sippel said, with more picks from Piedmont: Barolo, Barbaresco, Nebbiolo and Barbera. Cocktails ($14) feature gin, creme de violette, mezcal, rye, amaro, cognac and dry curacao.
L’Ostal will open for just dinner at first, Sippel said, and will eventually look to add lunch and brunch. The restaurant will be open from 5 to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.