The French Laundry is
an American restaurant located in Yountville, California,
in the Napa Valley. The chef and owner of the French Laundry
is Thomas Keller.
The restaurant is a perennial finisher in the annual Restaurant
Magazine list of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World,
and in 2006, it was awarded three stars in the inaugural
Michelin Guide to the Bay Area and has been reviewed by
the New York Times.
The building was built as a saloon in the 1900s by a Scottish
stonesman for Pierre Guillaume, but when a law was passed
in 1906 prohibiting sale of alcohol within a mile of a
veteran's home Guillaume sold the building.
In the 1920s the building was owned by John Lande who
used it as a French steam laundry, which is the origin
of the restaurant's name.
In 1978 the mayor of Yountville renovated the building
into a restaurant. Don and Sally Schmidt owned the French
Laundry for much of the 1980s, and the early 1990s. In
1994 Keller bought the restaurant...
