Enjoy a $50 gift certificate to La Piquette, a cozy neighborhood bistro on Macomb Street in the heart of Cleveland Park. The mood is breezy — sometimes the bistro takes reservations, other times it doesn’t — but the cooking is serious.

Heading up the kitchen is Francis Layrle, the Gascony native whose saffron-scented mussel soup and duck with currant jus helped fill seats at the late Bezu in Potomac. Earlier in his career, Layrle cooked at the French Embassy, where he fed seven ambassadors.

À bientôt!

www.lapiquettedc.com