Restaurateur Laurent Vrignaud has 20/20 vision.
“My restaurants have to be [within] 20 miles or 20 minutes from my house,” explained Vrignaud, who lives in Newport Coast. “It’s my 20/20 rule. Would I open a restaurant in Pasadena? No.”
Vrignaud, the Business Journal’s Restaurateur of the Year for 2019, has instead opened five Moulin cafés along the coast of Orange County—all within his 20/20 concept.
When named Restaurateur of the Year, he had the original Moulin in Newport Beach (opened in 2014) and Laguna Beach (opened in 2016) and was just opening a location in San Clemente.
Since then, he has opened cafés in Costa Mesa at the OC Mix and in Dana Point.
Not bad for someone who spent half of his life in the action sports sales arena but dreamed of one day opening a small French café.
“I grew up in Paris, in Montmartre, the 18th District,” Vrignaud said. “Montmartre is the real deal, and Moulin is the real deal, it’s Montmartre in Orange County. It’s Paris away from Paris. It’s a true Parisian experience.”
Moulin Bouillon
When the pandemic hit, Vrignaud closed his restaurants for several weeks, then reopened them for takeout and soon after for patio and indoor dining. He trimmed the operating hours for all locations to 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. He made it home for dinner every night. He was content.
But anyone who knows Vrignaud suspected the busy Frenchman would welcome the right opportunity.
Opportunity dropped into Vrignaud’s lap when the restaurant adjacent to his original Newport Beach Moulin went out of business last year. Rather than simply take over that space and expand Moulin, Vrignaud had another idea in mind: Moulin Bouillon.
According to Vrignaud, the concept recreates the lively and bustling brasserie-style restaurants that dominated Paris in the late 1800s where blue-collar workers could enjoy a hearty meal including broth, or bouillon, at an affordable price.
The 3,000-square-foot restaurant has seating for 60 guests. While the original Moulin will continue to close at 3 p.m., Bouillon will be open seven days a week with continuous service (all-day table service) from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (open for dinner 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. through Oct. 19).
“Our customers keep asking for more Moulin, all day, all the time, so I’m giving them what they want,” Vrignaud said. “While the original Moulin is a nod to my childhood in Paris, Bouillon will be a tribute to my grandfather and our weekly lunches at Bouillon Chartier in Paris. It is also an opportunity to bring back the weekly dinners that went away with the pandemic, while introducing Orange County to another side of the classic Parisian experience.”
Authentic, Inexpensive
“People have heard of bistros and brasseries, those are a style of restaurant. Very few people, even French people, have heard of a bouillon,” Vrignaud continued. “In the poor districts, the 9th, 10th 11th, 12th, 18th districts, a bouillon was a place factory workers could go and have a broth and piece of bread and piece of meat. They were open 24/7, 365 days a year. A bouillon is authentic and inexpensive. It’s a French version of a diner.”
The menu lists eight appetizers, eight entrées, and eight desserts. It includes traditional Parisian appetizers such as French onion soup and escargots, main dishes such as steak sauce poivre vert and steamed cod in beurre blanc, and classic desserts like crème caramel and chocolate mousse.
An all-day a la carte menu is available with a daily plat du jour and menu formule, which allows guests to select an appetizer plus main dish and dessert for $39. Baskets of fresh-baked bread are included. French wines by the glass, carafe and bottle are priced at $8, $15 and $25, respectively.
“It’s in an environment where you don’t make a reservation, you can go anytime—although obviously we can’t be open 24/7,” Vrignaud said. “It’s casual, not expensive. Appetizers under $10, meat meals $17 to $25, desserts under $10. Bread is on the table, and we don’t charge you for the bread. We don’t charge you for the butter. Some restaurants charge $6 for bread. Really?”
South Coast Plans
Vrignaud has more in the works, with yet another Moulin restaurant due to open in November at South Coast Plaza.
“The South Coast Plaza folks have been after me for five years,” Vrignaud said. “Anton Segerstrom met with me and said he’d love to have me at South Coast Plaza. I looked and the spot I wanted was the café at the bridge, but a bakery was there.”
The bakery departed and the space became empty, so Vrignaud again said yes to opportunity.
Moulin will open the doors to its new café at South Coast Plaza on Nov. 15, on the Garden Terrace next to the Bridge of Gardens.
Seating for 80 guests will be outdoors under red umbrellas on the 1,000-square-foot terrasse de café, which will be filled with French tables and chairs all collected personally by Vrignaud during visits to France over the years.
The menu at Moulin South Coast Plaza will include tarts and pastries, baguettes and breads, as well as croissants and other baked goods. An assortment of salads, sandwiches and made-to-order crêpes will also be available.
Moulin Bouillon: 1000 Bristol St. N., Ste. 11, Newport Beach, (949) 418-9545, moulin.com/restaurant
