La Fable
Until recently, the locally iconic French bistro operating for decades in Rehoboth Beach collected on its website the number of customers served each year (~32,000), staff employed each season (17), and other operational restaurant metrics, culminating in a stark final data point: “100% happy customers.” Better check your Trip Advisor and Yelp postings . . . and this critical review. Hype is a potent currency among its most fervent publicists, and to be fair, no resort town restaurant expects near perfect customer reviews, particularly given that tourists commonly have unreasonable expectations regarding service and cooking, especially from a French bistro. Other consumer reviewers simply have no basis for which to judge the quality of a restaurant on any given isolated vacation experience, when entitlement of service and personalized attention are often drastically increased. La Fable considers itself a classic French bistro, and the menu largely reflects Ile de France (Paris) cooking, with other regional dishes joining the daily specials. You may find foie gras hard to locate given some state’s laws and, in some dining circles, popular revolt against the food, but not at La Fable, joining escargot, cheese boards, and other common Parisian delicacies holding a regular spot on the menu. Boeuf, poulet, and truite join a seasonal menu that leans on traditional French sauces (the bourguignon over-sauced) and the ubiquitous frites, albeit a soggy version, accompanying almost any entree you choose. La Fable is good but not great, and at its menu prices, good is not good enough. Crab soup is a stand-out, but the beef and fish dishes are merely adequate, not worth the downtown pricing. Given the handful of tables in the quaint, below-street and nearly windowless dining room, serving 32,000 customers per year seems aggressive in counting, but it is not something a self-acclaimed high-end French restaurant should boast about, as the data point connotes to some a cafeteria approach to dining in that size a restaurant. La Fable also is not a traditional French bistro as the owners broadcast, but instead a traditional white tablecloth, formal dining and romantic experience in a small room with an elegant wine selection, soft and muted hues and music, and attentive, and very knowledgeable service, some of which servers are happy to te parler Francais. Sometimes, though the service is too verbose and too directional, indeed, like most mammals, the Delmarva Foodie Elitist manages to ingest food without the benefit of coaching, but at La Fable, servers sometimes act as tutors, and we diners are their captive pupils. Entrees across the board are $44 (at this writing) and hors d’oeuvres and deserts priced accordingly. It gets crowded during the summer, so well-timed reservations are important, and bring your credit card because formal dining, even if not formally great, results in a formal bill.
P.S. to the owners: Is it really necessary to show on the landing web site page a photo of 1992 Don Perignon, which wasn’t even available when we last dined?
