French-inspired eatery comes to West Lake Hills

A taste of France has come to West Lake Hills.

In June, Blue Dahlia Bistro opened at 3663 Bee Caves Road, Ste. 4-A. The French-inspired bistro serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, and has salads, sandwiches and cheeses.

"I think that people like the fact that it is a simple European bistro," co-owner Amy Ramirez said. "It doesn't feel pretentious."

Ramirez opened the original Blue Dahlia Bistro in East Austin in 2007. She said she was inspired to open the restaurant after traveling through Europe as a stewardess and model.

"I wanted to bring back something simple and have beautiful, healthy food," she said.

In addition to serving European food, Ramirez said she wanted to replicate the sense of community at European bistros.

Ramirez wanted her restaurant to have community tables where strangers could sit down and have a meal together, she said. Both the West Lake Hills and Austin locations have community tables in addition to traditional seating.

"I just think that it's such an amazing experience and such a cool thing for people to sit next to each other and enjoy some of the simplest things in life like eating and conversation," she said. "As Americans, we are very afraid of being next to other people sometimes."

Bringing in partners

Ramirez brought in two partners, Sam Ramirez and Fred Nelson, to open the Austin Blue Dahlia Bistro. Nelson has helped run numerous restaurants, and Sam Ramirez, Amy's husband, originally signed on to be a silent investor.

Sam, who runs a drilling company in addition to co-owning Blue Dahlia Bistro, said helping run a restaurant has been an enjoyable challenge, and he learns something new every day, he said.

Expansion to West Lake Hills

Ramirez said she chose to open the second Blue Dahlia Bistro location in West Lake Hills because it would be a good fit for the community.

A fair amount of customers at the East Austin location came from West Lake Hills and told her she should open a location in their hometown, she said.

"As many times as I have been out in Westlake, there aren't a lot of options for dining out here," Ramirez said. "It seemed like [Blue Dahlia Bistro] could work."

Ramirez said while business at the West Lake Hills location has been good, it has been slower than she expected.

In particular, Ramirez said she was surprised that breakfast and the weekend brunch have not been more popular. While the East Austin location can have a two-hour wait for weekend brunch, there has been no wait for brunch in West Lake Hills.

For Westlake resident Claire Simmons, having Blue Dahlia Bistro by her house has been a blessing, she said.

"We really, really needed a restaurant like this," she said. "It's nice having great food in your backyard."

Popular dishes

Blue Dahlia Bistro co-owner Amy Ramirez said although all of the dishes are good, the following are the most popular:

• Salade nicoise with seared ahi tuna: $12.95. The salad is served with hardboiled eggs, black olives and freshly seared ahi tuna.
• Chicken salad tartine: $8.50. The chicken salad tartine with freshly made pesto sauce, mayonnaise, pine nuts and cranberries is served open-faced on whole-wheat bread.
• Frittata: $7.95. The frittata, which is a European-style egg pie, uses organic greens and pasteurized eggs. The dish is served with locally made breads.

Breakfast

Blue Dahlia Bistro serves breakfast on weekdays and brunch on weekends. Breakfast is also served all day. In addition to the frittata, the breakfast menu includes:

• Strawberry cream cheese croissant: $2.50
• Belgian waffles with fresh fruit: $5.95
• Blueberry blintzes with sweet ricotta: $5.95
• Greek yogurt with fresh berries: $3.95

Blue Dahlia Bistro, 3663 Bee Caves Road, Ste. 4-A, 306-1668, www.bluedahliabistro.com, Twitter: @bluedahliaatx