This November, “Check, Please! Bay Area” — KQED’s James Beard and Emmy Award-winning restaurant review series — will celebrate its 20th year of showcasing locals’ favorite eateries around the region. Among the restaurants featured in the upcoming season is Petaluma’s own Brigitte Bistro.
The four-episode season will include notable Bay Area storytellers, celebrities, and current and former Golden State Warriors. Episodes will air at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays starting Oct. 30 on channel KQED 9. The episode featuring Brigitte Bistro will air Nov. 20.
“Brigitte Bistro channels the flavors of Southern France through chef Nick Ronan’s childhood memories,” stated KQED’s announcement of the new season. “Think soupe à l’oignon, steak tartare and île flottante, all infused with a spirit of love and joie de vivre.”
Behind that “spirit of love” is chef/owner Nick Ronan, whose vision to share with the world aligns with his life’s motto: “Love, food, wine, passion, life and people.”
This isn’t the first time Ronan has been on “Check, Please!” — the French chef has operated several restaurants in San Francisco over the past two decades that were also featured on the show. In a recent phone interview, Ronan remarked how this time felt both familiar and “so much different.”
“It’s very similar to the first time I was on the show 17 years ago,” he said, “but this one has even more meaning.”
Before opening Brigitte Bistro, Ronan took a four-year hiatus from the restaurant industry and worked as a private chef around the Bay Area and Wine Country.
“After my mother passed away, I decided to come back to the industry and to this special town and special county and named the restaurant after my mother,” he said. “So the soul of my mother, combining with the soul of the county and the town of Petaluma, that’s my vision of how I wanted to come back. (It) was just perfect.”
Ronan opened his French bistro just over a year ago, on April 2, 2024, so it was a surprise to him to already be featured on TV.
“It usually takes longer to be selected,” he said. “But I guess there was a lot of people asking for Brigitte to be selected, so I was very honored.”
Ronan made around a dozen dishes for the “Check, Please!” crew, which he called top-notch and professional. He was especially heartened by the crowd of locals waiting at the door just as the restaurant opened on the day of filming.
While admitting that being on TV “wasn’t my thing, really,” Ronan said he now has more understanding of the industry — and the message he wants to share with viewers — than when he made his first “Check, Please!” appearance.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” he said. “It’s not only for my mother; it’s just really amazing to be able to be part of Petaluma’s scenery and Sonoma County and be able to share it on a larger scale — our county, our town and, of course, definitely my vision and my mother’s legacy.”
Ronan’s vision is all about authenticity. When the episode featuring his restaurant airs, he hopes viewers take away a sense of what it means to spend two hours of one’s life sharing a meal in an inviting space.
“Everybody is special and everybody deserves to feel special. So I want viewers to understand and to see that we will make you feel special. We will remind you how special you are,” he said.
“We tend to forget to remind each other how special we are, and it doesn’t cost anything to make you feel special. The fact that you come already makes us feel special, so we have to give it back 10 times, and I hope and I think viewers will see that.”