Sample European flavors at new bistro

There’s one telltale sign that lets Laurent Zirotti know he’s done a good day’s work.

A smile.

As the head chef at the recently opened Fleur de Sel restaurant in the bistro section of the Highlands Day Spa, the French-born Laurent brings his broad culinary background to the table five days a week, while wife Patricia, also from France, manages the front-end operations.

Offering French-inspired cuisine with an added touch of northern Italian and American flavors in a neighborhood ambiance, the restaurant’s unique array of recipes is sure to dazzle any palate – and hopefully bring a smile to every face.

“Food is important, and when you eat you should smile,” said Laurent, 44, who speaks with a French accent and radiates a convivial nature. He added that he views each plate as a challenge to tantalize the senses. “When you take a bite and you see that little smile, that’s worth a day of work,” he said.

Fleur de Sel, which means “flower of salt,” a rare and expensive sea salt that is hand harvested in the owners’ home country, sits atop the Highlands bluff overlooking the Rathdrum Prairie. The dining room, a warm, open-area that features a horseshoe-shaped wooden bar, can seat about 40 customers, and the owners plan on opening the patio next year. The business has grown to 10 employees since its September opening.

“It just has a nice, warm feel for a restaurant,” the owner and chef said. “We have some very traditional French recipes. … I think customers will find a French atmosphere that you’d find in the deep of France,” where he said the locals are friendly enough to invite visitors into their homes for a meal.

Patricia added, “We’re very hospitable. We like to greet people and make them feel comfortable.”

Even though most dishes are influenced by the traditional homemade recipes found in southern France, which often include heavy creams and sauces, the Zirottis included menu items that cater to almost any American audience, such as a natural bison burger and a chicken and truffle plate made with Oregon truffles. To support that hearty cuisine experience, the owners buy fresh, local produce for their dishes, and every menu item can be cooked-to-order and is less than $20.

House specialties include a sausage of duck and duck leg confit, with glazed onions, bacon, carrots and mushrooms in an old-fashioned mustard sauce, and a broiled portobello mushroom. For dessert, Laurent recommends the spicy flourless chocolate cake, a classic dessert with a jalapeno-sauce twist. The wine list reflects the restaurant’s wide-ranging approach with an international mix of reds and whites, and a number of Washington and California labels.

While many of Fleur de Sel’s items are new additions to the growing number North Idaho restaurants, the Zirottis are veteran business owners who’ve dedicated their careers to the service industry.

Before taking a fateful road trip earlier this year that took the couple and their two sons across the state’s Panhandle, Laurent and Patricia co-owned the popular restaurant Enzo Mediterranean Bistro in Billings for 10 years.

But the couple’s entrepreneurial turn had been set in motion long before that.

Barely into his teenage years, Laurent began an education in France’s culinary arts and hospitality programs, earning a culinary degree at the age of 18. He worked at a hotel in Nice, France, where he met and married Patricia, the hotel’s special events coordinator, before backpacking across the U.S. in the early 1980s. Patricia, meanwhile, stayed in southern France.

In the States, Laurent found a chef position in a San Francisco restaurant, and Patricia joined a few months later. After several years, and following advice from a friend about the beauty of the Big Sky State, the couple moved to Billings and opened their own bistro.

In the late ’80s, however, the couple moved back to France to raise their family. Laurent worked with renowned chefs at famous hotels in the French Riviera, including the Hotel Majestic Barriere in Cannes. Patricia, meanwhile, worked as a special events coordinator for a consulting company.

Despite their successes, though, long work schedules and little family time soon took a toll.

“We were working too hard and not seeing the family. We needed to change our life,” Laurent recalled.

“We wanted an easier life,” Patricia added.

The family moved back to Billings in 1998 and opened Enzo with a local business partner. After a decade-long run that saw the business thrive, and took the couple through a drawn-out legal battle with U.S. immigration authorities before being granted permanent resident cards, the bistro’s partnership dissolved. “We had a partnership divorce with the restaurant,” Laurent explained.

That’s when the Zirottis decided a change was in order.

“We decided to get a new start, a fresh start,” Patricia said, adding that North Idaho quickly caught their attention during a family trip across the Northwest. “We did a trip in June, and we fell in love with the area,” she said.

Once here, it didn’t take long for the couple to find a new home in the Highlands Day Spa. Owner Jeane Plastino-Wood said the husband and wife team were a perfect fit for the open bistro space and complements the other spa services. “It was really one of those meant-to-be kinds of things. We loved them right off the bat,” she said. “We’re really fortunate to have a restaurant that fits so well into the ambiance of the spa.”

The Zirottis hospitality and memory-making cuisine are fast becoming staples of a Fleur de Sel experience. Of course, when a business is more of a passion, as the Zirottis believe, those should be everyday occurrences.

As Laurent put it, “We’re here to please people first. I truly believe you are in this industry to please others first, or else you’re in the wrong industry.”