Cristallo Remaining dynamic in the restaurant business is partly the ability to recognize who one's customers are and to anticipate their changing appetites. Karen and Jeff Breslow are doing just that. The pair own Le Mouton Noir in Saratoga, an intimate French eatery that, since Easter, has been offering an alternative approach to dining out. Just appetizers with soup or salad. Chef Seth Fiertl, who has been with the Breslows for a year, has joined creative forces with pastry chef Fran Kanaley to invent the new menu.
Color is a predominant culinary consideration.
Flower pots filled with hand-sliced fruit and vegetables that have been fried greet diners at each table. Where the skewers are usually served on sticky rice, his are on vanilla-scented rice. It smells really good around here. Among the salads are seafood and fresh Dungeness crab, along with crisp pineapple and ginger-glazed quail atop an Asian salad. French onion soup is a standard.