By Phillip Large
PS BottomLine

In the heart of London, a city with countless Michelin star restaurants, celebrity chefs, and über dining, sits my favorite Belgian bistro, Fiona’s. A very small and intimate eatery is probably not your first or second choice when visiting a name city like London, but great food pops up sometimes in the most unexpected places. A continent away in my own backyard, I made the same discovery. Nestled between two of the desert’s most highly advertised steakhouses, in a cozy nook, sits our own European gem. Yes, a Belgian bistro in downtown Palm Springs: Pomme Frite.
Now I will be the first to admit that I knew basically nothing about Belgian food until repeat visits to my foreign friends and the bistro in London. My limited education of anything remotely Belgian was being able to name “The Muscles From Brussels” as Jean-Claude Van Damme. Also, brussels sprouts, those mini bite-sized cabbages that ruined every Thanksgiving, geographically I believe they come from Brussels in Belgium. Now I worry far more about where they rest on my plate than their country of origin. They say Belgium is a land of German portions and French culinary skills. That sums up café Pomme Frite, parfaitement. Owner Jean-Claude Constant warmly greets us for what I anticipate will be a culinary mini-vacation. If the food is anywhere as welcoming as the affable host, then we are truly in for a treat. It's hard to find fault in a country that invented chips (french fries), perfected chocolate to world-class status and to top it off, gave us some of the best imported beers. So let’s eat out! Pomme Frite’s menu is incredibly cosmopolitan, reflecting many different cultures with an accent on French cooking. “We serve superior cuisine with great pride, catering to the serious food aficionados, minus the European pomp,” states Jean-Claude. The restaurant has grown substantially since it opened ten years ago. Instead of knocking down walls and creating a cavernous space, Pomme Frite retains its charming café setting, outside on Palm Canyon in an old-world patio and inside in a variety of intimate dining areas. On a very packed Friday evening, Jean-Claude circles every table, checking in personally on each guest. “Merci beaucoup,” he says.
Our meal starts with one of the most traditional Belgian specialties, a steamer pot of Mediterranean mussels. If you are a mussel lover like I am (no jokes please), then there is nothing that compares with Pomme Frite. When the server pulls the top off the clay crock full of fresh mussels, the hairs on my arm stand up. That’s a good thing. Jean-Claude recommends the robust flavor of the Marinière preparation with white wine, leeks shallots and celery.
The restaurant serves mussels eight different ways, including a Provençale with white wine, tomatoes, garlic, onions and bell peppers. “We import 5,000 pounds of fresh Mediterranean black mussels a year,” boasts J.C. “That’s 50,000 pounds of mussels since we first opened.”I think that officially makes Pomme Frite the mussels of Brussels and Palm Canyon Drive. For entrees, Pomme Frite boasts many dining options, too numerous to name in this review, the prices all incredibly reasonable, the selections, outstanding. I sample one of the chef’s many specials this particular evening with a Mixed Grill “Land & Sea” including Filet and Lamb Medallions, Sea Scallops (substituted tonight for grilled shrimp) in a rosemary port sauce, Au Gratin Potatoes and Sauteed Broccolini. Meats and fowl are served with a choice of homemade sauces including Au Poivre (crushed peppercorn and cognac butter sauce), a La Bordelaise (red wine, bone marrow, shallots and demi-glace), or my favorite, Roquefort Cream made with butter, heavy cream and Roquefort cheese. Heavenly sinful. Most entrées are also accompanied by crispy french fries (pomme frites). If you are going to name your restaurant Pomme Frite, then it had better be the best chips this side of Belgium. Contrary to their name, french fries originated in Belgium. The name actually refers to the manner in which the potato is cut. In any language, délicieux. One of my dining companions, my best friend, orders the “Baseball Cut” steak. We both ask Jean-Claude, “What’s the baseball steak?” “It’s the size of a baseball, thick, like the size of your fist,” answers J.C. as he hits his fist into what I think is supposed to be a catcher’s mitt pose. The sports analogy is totally lost on our table, but the steak is a home run and probably the best valued entrée on the menu. At just $24 dollars, Pomme Frite’s eight ounce prime filet rivals the $54 dollar nearby competitors.
Not to be missed is the Idaho Rainbow Trout with almonds. The women sitting next to us order the trout and the pan-seared aroma is intoxicating. The menu is so well priced that customers were obviously sampling atypical restaurant fare with, shall I say, a devil may care attitude. Weekly specials are posted in the restaurant and online at pomme-frite.com, as well as a fabulous three-course prix fixe menu for just $27.50 per person.
Our dinner concludes with Belgian perfected desserts, like Grand Marnier Crème Brûlée. The brûlée is incredibly sweet. My partner and best friend fall deep into a sugar rush and back off my plate. Fine with me. So as not to be out done, they both order the Belgian Chocolate Mousse topped with pistachio crème anglaise. Incroyable! Pomme Frite is now open for lunch daily, (closed Tuesdays) and features a Belgian brunch style menu with everything from crab and spinach omelettes and classic Quiche Lorraine to Croque Monsieur Tartines (sandwiches) and imported escargots.
Oscar Wilde wrote, “The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.” This May, my ex-pat friends will return to the U.S. from London, closing the chances of me visiting Europe anytime soon. With their welcome home, I am already planning a trip to Pomme Frite.
Look out London. Look out Belgium. Look out world.

Bon Appetit.

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Estelle Shanley
The Desert Sun
September 8, 2006

Much has changed about this European restaurant and yet, much remains the same. Two years ago, owner and maitre'd Jean-Claude Constant saw an opportunity to expand, enlarging dining capacity to 74 seats inside and outside on a noisy sidewalk patio that catches all the bustling action of downtown Palm Springs.

While dining on French-Belgium cuisine, the patio provides a ringside seat for people watching in an unrivaled setting.

While Pomme Frite has expanded, so too has the kitchen, adding chef Stacey Hawkins, who came from the award-winning Desert Sage Restaurant in La Quinta. Although the menu has not changed significantly since it opened seven years ago, the new emphasis on presentation has added to the dining enjoyment.

Picture if you will an appetizer of escargots (unnecessarily listed as "French imported" snails), nine in a serving for $10. An imaginative serving of generously-buttered seasoned snails arrives served in a cone of a scooped-out fresh baguette. To enhance the presentation, a generous helping of perfectly mashed potatoes accompanies the appetizer, rendering it much more than a starter course.

Hawkins' arrival coincides with the introduction of three prix fixe menus for $29.50 and $39.50.

These complete meals include wine.

Owner Monsieur Constant is Belgian, and Pomme Frite offers a mix of French and Belgium food, although any discerning gourmet will be hard pressed to define the difference.

A steamer pot of black mussels ($18) is prepared in a saffron or lemongrass broth, or in garlic and cream. For mussel lovers, choice of preparation is difficult but all are superb.

The Flemish-style beef stew made with prime beef is a wonderful dish and appropriate for the autumn months. Reigning supreme are the perfectly deep fried pomme frites. We also recommend the steak and frites salad, a delightful change of pace for $20.

Desserts here are marvelous, beautifully presented and quite French, except for the Belgian chocolate mousse, a stunning finale to a great meal.

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Henry Fenwick
The Desert Sun
March 22, 2006
It's still a bistro!

Jean-Claude Constant, the owner of Pomme Frite, has a bible in his kitchen - a bible of recipes that are the signature dishes of his Palm Springs bistro. For seven years now he has allowed no divergence from these classic preparations, but this season he has slackened his hold a little bit. New touches are creeping in to some of the dishes, and new dishes are making their way from the specials menu to the regular menu.

The cause of this apparent heresy is Steve Brown, the new chef, who most recently worked under Chef Jeffrey Russell at the lamented Desert Sage in La Quinta. Desert Sage, of course, was not a bistro - it was the finest of fine dining. But the changes that have been happening haven't altered the character of Pomme Frite, they are small and subtle and fit perfectly within the bistro format. Pomme Frite is definitely still a bistro, Constant emphasized when I asked him about it. "It's not fine dining," he said firmly. "It's an upgrading!"

He knew, when he met Brown, that with this new chef heading up the kitchen he could allow himself to relax a little bit. Even so, it was a gradual thing. The line was carefully drawn - the regular menu, and its daily specials, remained the same. The Belgian dishes like the mussels or the beef carbonnade would be a constant and regular customers had to know what night to come for their favorite dish: if it's Osso Buco it must be Friday. Brown got to play with the Chef's specials list, the prix fixe tasting menu, which changes twice a month, and the monthly wine dinners. But as the two have worked together little modulations have crept in. Some of those classic dishes are now being presented with a twist: it may be the same black dress but there's a chic new scarf, or at least the scarf is knotted in a different way. The escargots, for example, now show up nestled in portions of baguette, the jumbo sea scallops rest on a sweet pea risotto and are accompanied by a carrot beurre blanc, the veal liver comes with apple brulee.

"That's Steve!" Constant confirmed happily. "He added a new thing the other night: the duck confit. There's always duck confit but he does it en croute with a duck confit ravioli, and each one has its own beurre blanc - a chipotle beurre blanc and a tarragon beurre blanc. I see the people look at the dishes and they're thinking 'Is that really what I ordered?' Then they taste it! They say: 'That's pork tenderloin?' because it's wrapped in prosciutto. And the apple sauce that goes with it - they love it! I went into the kitchen the other night and said 'What are you doing with that champagne glass?' and he said 'They want the apple sauce for dessert! How much are you going to charge?'"

Now the two confer to discuss what can be done to improve an established staple.

"You have to have a roast chicken," Constant said, "but how to make it better? My last name is Constant and I believe in tradition but you can always do better. Constant improvement."

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Maureen Daly
Special to The Desert Sun
March 29, 2006

It could be dinnertime, 5:30 to 11 p.m. any night of the week, or 12:30 to 3 p.m. for lunch on Saturday or Sunday and Pomme Frite will be serving French and Belgian cuisine. A pot of steamed black mussels in saffron broth; chicken vol au vent, chicken and mushrooms in puff pastry; marinated tiger prawns in chili, ginger sauce with lemon grass risotto; chef's homemade ravioli of the day; oven-baked onion soup; frisee salad with poached egg and bacon; steamed artichoke with two dipping sauce; New York steak; rack of lamb; crème brulee with berries; prime chateau sirloin steak, and so much more.

Pomme Frite is a popular fixture for tourists and repeat local customers for the past seven years on Palm Canyon in Palm Springs.

Owner is Jean Claude Constant, an accomplished chef, now exuding energy, hospitality and his entrepreneurial skills at Pomme Frite.

Talented chef Steven Brown is new in the starring role of head chef. Brown was trained at culinary college in Santa Barbara, and prepared gourmet menus at top Southern California dining spots, including the excellent, now-closed Desert Sage restaurant in La Quinta.

Inside and patio seating here combined adds up to 100 diners. Reservations are advised since customer demand can reach to 120 and more on a weekend night.

Inside dining room, which also houses the bar, has table/chair arrangements and wall banquettes with cushioned seats. Walls are neatly decorated with framed antique French posters and vintage photos of French and Belgian chateaux.

Table china is simple white in quality and design; glassware and table silver are well chosen.

With such a varied and tempting menu, it is somewhat difficult to decide just what an average single check might be, lunch or dinner, but management told us the average single luncheon check, Saturday or Sunday only, and without bar service, is about $10-$15. A dinner check, again without bar, could be $25-$30.

A note about a pair of offbeat and interesting dining opportunities. There are seven different Daily Specials, one for each day of the week. Price range for these complete dinners is $19-$26. They are: Monday, lamb loin medallions; Tuesday, Belgian meatballs; Wednesday, prime chateau steak "Oscar"; Thursday, Angus beef "stroganoff"; Friday, veal shank "osso buco"; Saturday, rack of lamb; Sunday, roast duck "a l'orange."

A second dining opportunity offered nightly is Chef's Prix Fixe Tasting Menu, four courses at $39 a person.

Here is a sample menu served in mid-March: Dungeness crab cakes, avocado puree and medley of bell peppers. Ravioli du jour, a chef's creation. Grilled New Zealand double lamb chop with wild mushrooms demi-glace, goat cheese gratin potatoes, proscuitto wrapped broiled asparagus. For dessert there is frozen raspberry soufflé with pomegranate reduction.

Belgian specialties include steamer pot of black mussels in the following ways: Garlic and cream, marinere, saffron broth, provençale and more.

Pomme frites are, of course, those slim double fried potatoes, French-style fries, served with dipping sauces.

Little things that mean a lot: Tiny pickled cocktail onions served with imported French cognac pate; toasted pine nuts and bits of roquefort cheese in the petite salade, the warm baguette, broiled snail and herb stuffed, served with a full order of traditional escargots, and the three dessert spoons presented with a single order of excellent crème brûlée.

Maureen Daly is a novelist and freelance writer based in Palm Desert.
She can be reached at P.O. Box 3875, Palm Desert, CA 92261.

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Estelle Shanley
Special to The Desert Sun
September 16, 2004

This small and charming European-style restaurant nestled in the heart of downtown Palm Springs offers French and Belgian cuisine that speaks brilliantly to the gastronomic obsession of both nations.

Good-natured rivalry
Jean-Claude Constant, host and owner of Pomme Frite, somewhat reluctantly comments on the long-held belief that the Belgians taught the French to cook. "The French do well," he concedes. "But I think the Belgians work more at food."

Despite this good-natured national rivalry, Pomme Frite is as decidedly French as it is Belgian.

The restaurant presents an impressive wine list and a large assortment of Belgian beers. One needs to remember that the country is renowned for its 400 beers, produced by hundreds of small breweries. As evident in this small and wonderful restaurant, the Belgians use beer the way French chefs use wine.

Eating in harmony
You’ll find this dramatically and deliciously evident in the Flemish-style prime beef stew priced at $16.95. It satisfies big appetites, literally bursting with flavor.

The mussels are another choice specialty here. A generous two-pound serving of Maine black mussels is offered in nine varieties, modestly priced at $16.95. There are mussels Provencale, mussels with saffron or lemongrass broth, garlic or curry or blue cheese with cream. Mussels are also featured as an appetizer, sautéed for $7.95.

The French country-style paté at $8.95, laced with cognac and pistachio, is a dream. Don’t miss the saffron cream soup, indescribably delicious and a must for $6.95.

Unfortunately the Vichyssoise, although perfectly flavored, was -- Mon Dieu! -- served at room temperature. Properly chilled, it should become a hit.

The prime "Chateau" sirloin served with pepper sauce for $20.95 was so heavy on the sauce it doused the green beans. Otherwise, the meat was excellent.

California Bouillabaisse at $22.95, rich with fresh fish and superb broth and the North Atlantic salmon, both rank as high as the sand dabs almandine, priced at $17.95.

Quaint and cozy
The restaurant seats more than 60 inside and on the patio. Although tables are close together, noise is minimal. In the quaint and cozy European ambience of Pomme Frite, it is not difficult to relax and enjoy dinner and good service.

Don’t forget dessert
All desserts are made on the premises. Try the Belgian chocolate mousse on a bed of crème Anglaise; it cannot be rivaled. The vanilla ice cream profiteroles are also excellent, and the poached pears in red wine offer a refreshing, sweet change of pace.

Source: The Desert Sun

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By Maureen Daly
Special to The Desert Sun
March 24th, 2004
It would seem perfectly in place located Seine-side on The Left Bank section of Paris, or on an avenue near the flower market in Liege, Belgium.

Pomme Frite is also right at home on South Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs, where it has been a busy bicultural cafe for about five years.

There are several good reasons why this restaurant, a showcase of owner and chef Jean-Claude Constant, is a special experience.

It is located in midtown Palm Springs in a prominent spot on unofficial Restaurant Row, among other popular restaurants. Thus, Pomme Frite shares the excitement of bright lights, sidewalk and street side traffic and general mood of tourist trade hoopla.

There is outdoor and indoor appeal in the tiny open-air terrace that seats about a dozen and inside space for about three dozen more. Walls are brightened with framed posters of the famed resort town, Spa, Belgium, and other travel memorabilia. A corner kitchen offers a peak at the busy chef plus an enticing waft of fresh foods.

The beer and wine list includes domestic and imported. Tables are set with good cutlery and linen-style napkins, with butcher paper over the linens. Service is good-natured and speedy.

Serving hours are 5 to 11 p.m., with lunch on Saturday and Sunday only, noon to 4 p.m., with reservations taken.

Prices are reasonable and even with the seductive menu, lunch without bar service averages about $11-$12 a person, and dinner, without bar service, comes to about $25.

Besides soup of the day and an excellent oven-baked French onion soup, one can enjoy a delicate saffron cream soup, served with whole mussels.

A pair of salads, out of four offered, are Belgian endive and radicchio, with green apple, candied walnuts, blue cheese and shallots; and salad with poached egg and crispy bacon on a bed of baby chicory, arugula and tangy peppercorn dressing.

More than a half-dozen appetizers, with the customers’ favorite a roasted beets and goat cheese Napoleon prepared with sliced red and yellow garden beets, sliced and layered with sharp, smooth goat cheese with roasted red bell pepper vinaigrette.

Extra special in its careful preparation is French country pête with cognac and pistachios, served with cornichons, onions and fresh country bread.

The fish and seafood menu features tiger shrimp and sea scallop pasta, sand dabs amandine, sesame-crusted ahi tuna and a great California bouillabaisse with salmon, cod fish, shrimp, scallop sand mussels in a saffron broth, served with croutons and saffron rice.

We ordered two pounds of steamed black mussels from Maine, tender and juicy in the shell, served with crispy Belgian fries on the side. The mussels are prepared to diner’s choice: Provencale, saffron broth, curry and cream, garlic and cream and several other combos.

Entrees most ordered from the meat and fowl menu: Half a roasted chicken with lemon garlic sauce and New Zealand lamb shank with shallots sauce, white bean casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, sautéed jumbo pork chops with vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes and braised coq au vin.

A top Belgian choice is Flemish style carbonnade of beef, a rich, velvety prime beef stew, long-simmered in Belgian beer, served with crispy fries.

Desserts are house-made and almost too good to share. One of chef’s specialties is crème brûlée, a different flavor each day, announced on a blackboard just above the kitchen pass-through. On a recent Saturday night we were lucky enough to read: "Crème brûlée Grand Marnier." It was highly flavored, silky smooth with a shell-like caramelized top and delicious.

Maureen Daly is a novelist and freelance writer based in Palm Desert.
She can be reached at P.O. Box 3875, Palm Desert, CA 92261.

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By Maureen Daly
Special to The Desert Sun
October 31, 2002
"If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium."

"People remember that old joke and it also helps them remember that since we’re a Belgian restaurant, we are probably closed on Tuesday, and we are," explains owner/entrepreneur Jean Claude Constant of Pomme Frite, a small gem of a dining spot (it seats only 50, including a few choice terrace tables), on Palm Canyon in the heart of Palm Springs.

Open four years ago, with considerable buffing and upgrading, the compact dining room has a distinct cafe feeling, with traditional heavy lace half-curtains, bright cloth napkins, white tablecloths covered with butcher paper and a partially open kitchen.

Restaurant walls decorated with framed prints of European spas. Good wine and beers list with the latter to include well-chilled Belgian imports range in price from $3.50 to $6.

The average dinner check, without bar service, is about $25, usually to cover two courses prepared by Chef Chip Romig.

Top-quality foods are always used and dishes are well-prepared and in Belgian-sized portions.

Choices are well-covered, from a dozen appetizers to elegantly lusty desserts, made on the premises.

As starters, customers’ favorites are the decidedly deluxe endive and radicchio salad with candied walnuts, $7.95, generous, well-chilled and topped with a pungent homemade vinaigrette; oven-baked French onion soup and escargots.

Boxed in the middle of the menu are the featured Belgian specialties -- ethnic items mostly offbeat to us -- that have made little Pomme Frite such a standout.

The most popular dish here is prime beef stew, "Flemish style," as originated in Brussels, it’s a darkly rich beef stew, satin-smooth gravy with beef cubes tender-simmered in Belgian beer, served with pommes frites, french-fry style potatoes.

The potatoes are deep fried in a variety of oils, not all vegetable, and lightly seasoned with salt.

A second delicious entree specialty, at the same price, is meatballs "Ardennes style," as served in sophisticated, big-city Liege, oven-roasted with bacon and mushroom sauce, served with signature frites.

For us, the treat of the Pomme Frite menu stems from the Belgian passion for steamed mussels, imported to that country from the cold waters around Holland.

Here the choice is a black mussel variety, farm-raised and shipped in from Maine. Two pounds per person are served as an entree so that full season dining means hundreds of pounds of mussels weekly.

Presentation is in a two-part mussel steamer, also imported from Belgium, with the removable top used to hold empty shells at table. Total entree charge for this flavorful delicacy is $15.95. It’s served with pommes frites. A choice of nine intriguing steamer broths are available.

Besides a nightly special, there are always a dozen widely varied entree choices, such as a memorable coq au vin, $16.95, prepared with chicken, bacon, white mushrooms and pearl onions; New Zealand lamb shank, $17.95, braised in garlic and rosemary; and a great California bouillabaisse, $19.95, with fresh fish and seafood in a light saffron broth.

Available every day but Saturday are a pair of mix-and-match three-course dinner menus with intriguing possibilities.

For $19.95, diners can get the soup of the day or a petite salad, an entree of roasted half chicken, Flemish beef stew; or a pot of steamed black mussels, with crème brûlée du jour. The restaurant serves wonderfully experimental flavors, including chocolate.

Diners can also choose a three course dinner at $25.95. It offers diner’s choice of an appetizer, an entree and a dessert.

One favorite entree is the 8-ounce baseball cut sirloin steak, $18.95 on the regular menu, served with a sharp pink (Belgian import) and black peppercorn sauce. In Belgium, this cut of sirloin is called "a cobblestone" and may be butterflied before cooking.

Our choice for dessert is the deliciously decadent "Cafe Liegeois or "coffee of Leige," $5.95, on the regular menu. It’s well-chilled and served in a stout dessert goblet. The scoop of coffee ice cream has a shot of strong espresso coffee poured over it. It’s topped with swirls of whipped cream.

Starting Nov. 1, Pomme Frite will offer luncheon service.

Maureen Daly is a novelist and freelance writer based in Palm Desert.
She can be reached at P.O. Box 3875, Palm Desert, CA 92261.