A perennial vote-getter on the Chronicle's Top 100 Bistro Jeanty is oft-lauded as Wine Country's most authentic French country bistro. A native of Champagne and the opening chef of Domaine Chandon, Jeanty's menu features simple dishes like rabbit terrine, Coq Au Vin, cassoulet, Sole Meuniere, steak frites, foie gras pate, fried smelt and roasted bone marrow--classics informed by a mother's kitchen and hometown bistros. Classics that, to the consternation of some and comfort of others, remains constant. (Beef stew and cassoulet in summer? Really?

Peter Lowell's in Sebastopol offers up fresh, biodynamic, vegan and flexitarian fare.

Cursing this second strike-out at the Napa newcomer, I called in my late-afternoon safety--the one valley spot that would definitely be open, definitely be packed and almost certainly have pizza (fig or not) to console my bruised karma: Bistro Don Giovanni.