Bouchon Bakery

The queue tells you what kind of place this is: a case of breads and pastries, a line moving past it, and tables outside where the bags get opened.

A Keller bakery in the middle of Yountville

Bouchon Bakery is the Yountville bakery of the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, and its position in that group is the plainest thing about it. Keller's properties account for much of what Yountville is known for at the table, and the bakery is the group's most public-facing, walk-in address in the town: a French bakery in its own right rather than a restaurant with a pastry sideline.

Gleaming cases and a line that keeps moving

The room reads old-world European. Cases of pastries and breads catch warm natural light, and there is a constant hum of people lining up and then regrouping at the outdoor tables. It is a counter operation, so the rhythm is look, choose, pay and carry it out. Buying for later is as normal here as eating on the spot.

Buy from the case, and buy for later

There is no fixed list to work through. The case is the menu, it changes as the day goes on, and the sensible approach is to choose by eye rather than to arrive with a plan. Two ways of using the place both work: something eaten at an outdoor table straight away, and a loaf or a box carried on to a picnic or a room.