Chef Israel Perez has created his own menu of American flavors delights. The menu features a selection of Italian & Mexico dishes and beautifully designed entrees sure to appeal to you and your friends.

I.C.P.

The Beginning

FEB.-01-2006

Israel Perez’s downtown St. Helena restaurant, formerly known as Vercelli, has been renamed St. Helena Bistro.

About half of the staff is new, and while some popular menu items remain — eggplant parmigiana, handmade gnocchi, fettuccini pasta — the restaurant offers many new selections, said Perez.

The new name allows Perez to expand outside of the “Italian restaurant” box implied by the Vercelli name, he said.

“We don’t focus anymore just on Italian food,” Perez said. “People like to try new things all the time, and the new name allows us to play around a little more. … When people hear bistro, they know we have a little bit of everything.”

The restaurant has a healthy local following, and Perez said feedback has been positive since the name and menu changed in September.

“People are going crazy about the new lamb burger,” he said.

Among the other new dishes are American-style fish and chips, tacos and steak.

Perez, who started out as a chef at the long-defunct Green Valley Restaurant, started the Wine Valley Restaurant in 2006. One year later he renamed it Vercelli.

St. Helena Bistro is located at 1146 Main St.