Chef Ralph Tingle is a good, earnest guy who could put several reams of typing paper to use whipping out a few chapters of his bio about his well-lived life-to-date: stints at Taillevent in Paris, Le Cirque in New york, Le Fetzer in Hopland, to name a few. Fortunately for Ralph, typewriters are in upstairs attics waiting to be hauled to local museums. Besides, he doesn’t have time to write – just yet - because he is too busy keeping his eye on the bistro ball he put in motion back in ’92 when he opened Bistro Ralph on the Healdsburg Plaza - and this is fortunate for us.
When Ralph found this ideal place to hang his chef’s shingle and attempt just the right balance of hard work,
innovation, relaxation, and celebrity required for a small town restaurant, we were ready to embrace his effort. We are still embracing. We all eat at Ralph’s. We all hope he is there when we go in for lunch or dinner. We all hope he gives us some time. We like Ralph because he is incredibly human, remarkably peripatetic – difficult in our little town, passionate about his kids, politics, and his food – which is also some of our favorite food: lamb burgers, chicken livers, frites, good sole or barely cooked yellow fin, and a proper chicken paillard. Plus, he still starts us off with those little seasoned bread balls that we eat like popcorn while we’re waiting for our glass of wine.
I mention the bread balls because I have spent time at Ralph’s occasionally calculating the number of these things I have eaten in sixteen years – about 3,786 to date. I mention the wine because currently we can enjoy a glass or two of the 2005 Michel-Schlumberger Maison Rouge – the perfect Bistro wine to have when we dine at Ralph’s Bistro.
