How about some oak flooring with your latte and croissant?

That's a not far-fetched future query at Les Baux, the French bakery, coffee shop and bistro that Sacramento's Trong Nguyen is opening in a month or two at the former Cassidy's Family Restaurant site at 51st Street and Folsom Boulevard.

Trong, a big fan of unusual woods and a supporter of sustainable building practices, is filling his new place with reclaimed lumber and allowing visitors to place orders for the products they like.

For example, a part of his wine bar is made up of wood strips that formerly were steeped in red wines to impart flavoring. Another counter has similar strips that were used in Chardonnays.

The outside of the building is being faced with discarded redwood fencing. The floor is made from "rough and tumble" imported French oak.

"Everything is for sale," he says of his plan to make his place a wood products showroom as well as rustic bistro.

He adds with a smile: "It's a crazy concept."

Trong, founder of the La Bou chain of coffee shops, started work on this venture last year and originally expected to be open by the start of this year.

Then he encountered some hiccups.

His main chef, master baker Christian Bruot, couldn't get a work permit, so Trong decided to subtly shift the bistro's focus from purely French cuisine to French food with Vietnamese influences.

A constant tinkerer, Trong also came up with a couple of operational innovations that he decided to patent – and now he wants to hold off on opening until those ideas are protected.

At the same time, he's still fine-tuning the bistro menu, which will feature oysters and small-plate items priced between $7 and $10.

So when will he be ready to start up operations? There's no rush.

"We'll open," Trong says, "when we're ready to open."

Slocum comeback?

Speaking of restaurants, the owners of the historic Slocum House in Fair Oaks haven't yet found a buyer for the property. Not at the original asking price of $1.3 million. Not at the reduced price of $945,000.

So now, says John Bansemer, whose parents own it, the place once known for elegant meals served in a courtyard full of live chickens, is being offered up for lease.

Bansemer says the building has been fixed up and its "best use" is still as a restaurant. One prospective user is "very excited" about a deal, he reports.

Others also are kicking the tires.

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk

Sacramento's Segal & Kirby law firm is a serious enterprise with a nice sense of quirk.

Staffers recently moved from L Street into fancy new digs at 400 Capitol Mall, quickly filled the offices with eclectic art pieces and then pondered names for their three conference rooms.

They considered following local tradition and calling them Tahoe or Sierra One, Two and Three, says Malcolm Segal, a specialist in the defense of white-collar crime charges.

Then, Segal reports, partner James Kirby "turned to me and said, 'How about Larry, Curly and Moe?' "

That idea stuck. Soon going into the room that's now marked "Larry" is a framed poster of the Three Stooges. And, Segal says, another of the rooms could get a different poster of the slapstick trio: the one portraying them as bumbling members of the fictional law firm "Dewey, Cheatem and Howe."

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Reach Bob Shallit at (916) 321-1049.

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