Forget the tweezer food. Forget the high price tag. Forget impossible-to-get reservations. One of the world’s most famous fine dining chefs is bringing back a Bay Area pandemic pop-up that showcases a more egalitarian dish: burgers.
Burgers & Half Bottles, from acclaimed chef Thomas Keller, opened at 6518 Washington St. in Yountville on Aug. 2. The chef-owner of three-Michelin-starred The French Laundry first debuted his wagyu burgers in 2020 for a six-week run at one of his other Yountville restaurants, Ad Hoc. This time around, he and his crew are slinging burgers inside the chef’s former La Calenda Mexican restaurant, which closed in November 2024. The pop-up is slated to last 10 weeks.
Keller first had the idea of doing burgers in 1992 after he tried In-N-Out in Los Angeles for the first time, according to the restaurant’s website. Newly arrived in California from New York, he paired the quintessential burger and fries with a half bottle of zinfandel. Two years later, Keller would take over ownership of The French Laundry and transform it into the world-class fine dining restaurant it is today. But that memory of a simple burger with a full-bodied red wine stuck with him and was the inspiration for Burgers & Half Bottles…