Whether or not to try the $38 caviar-topped chicken nuggets appetizer is just one of the choices facing visitors to Cafe Vivant, a new restaurant concept in downtown Menlo Park pushing the boundaries of the farm-to-table movement that’s also home to one of America’s rarest wine collections.

Which chicken to share is another — there are three breeds of heritage chickens on offer at the restaurant, raised on a nearby 80-acre farm in Pescadero, and then there’s the question of which wine to try.

The vibe: Attentive service, understated elegance and careful flourishes are among the phrases that came to mind on a recent visit to the restaurant. From the moment you walk in, you feel taken care of, warm and anticipating the meal ahead.

The look: Designed with San Francisco-based architecture firm Studio Banaa, the interior is bathed in warm light, with gridded ceiling accents that parallel the modern-looking built-in wine storage against the restaurant’s walls. The space has been completely transformed from the Le Boulanger location it once housed.

The team: Leading the restaurant’s menu are Executive Chef Jared Wentworth and partner Chef de Cuisine Emily Phillips, whose restaurants have earned multiple Michelin stars. Most recently, they were at Moody Tongue in Chicago, which became the world’s first two-Michelin-starred brewery. Desserts come from Executive Pastry Chef Almira Lukmanova, who has experience at Michelin-starred restaurants around the world.

Meanwhile, restaurant co-founders Jason Jacobeit and Daniel Jung — award-winning New York City sommeliers — are behind not just the wine collection, but the farm-to-table infrastructure behind the scenes that makes such a restaurant possible. They partnered with Rob James of Pescadero’s Corvus Farm to invest in an 80-acre farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains, growing peak-season produce while raising heritage breed chickens, guinea hens, quail, partridges, pigs, sheep and rabbits. Additionally, the restaurant’s kitchen scraps are reused at the farm to boost its sustainability practices.

The food: The menu offers a selection of bites, salads and mains — which includes a creative savory Dungeness crab cannoli, featuring arare and fennel marmalade ($22), and octopus bites, coal-grilled with potato, preserved lemon, black garlic and saffron aioli ($24). Both provided a carefully balanced mix of textures and rich flavors that I could’ve eaten all night.

But the core focus of the restaurant is its heritage chicken program. The restaurant menu offers whole chickens, raised locally on a regenerative 80-acre farm in Pescadero, designed for two to share. Each bird is served whole — presented on a platter with assorted vibrant garnishes before it’s taken to the back to be carved for consumption. Then it’s brought out for diners to dig in, served with foraged mushrooms, roasted farm vegetables and lemon thyme jus.

On a recent visit, my dining companion and I tried a California golden ($48 per person), a chicken raised for 112 days in California, paired with a parmesan-topped pumpkin risotto. The chicken’s golden-brown skin topped with flower petals set the visual stage to savor each soft, tender, almost buttery bite of chicken, especially when paired with the French Muscadet wine (though I have no doubt other suggested wines would’ve been excellent, too).

For dessert, there are not only traditional options with a twist, like the chocolate mousse featuring honeycomb cake, caramelized sunflower and grape leaf-fig sorbet, but also a fried chicken ice cream sundae (both $15). Or go for an artisanal cheese platter — selecting three varieties ($24) or “all the cheese” ($42).

The sips: Jacobeit and Jung have curated a 3,000-bottle wine cellar that boasts more than 700 California wines from before 2020, a wide array of global and historic wines, plus what’s considered the most comprehensive collection of wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA.

They’ve also opened a location of their Manhattan bottle shop, Somm Cellars, attached to the restaurant, which offers rare wine bottles, beer, pre-batched cocktails, coffee and tea; charcuterie and small plates; and farm-raised meats, eggs, cheeses and products from rotating local farm producers.

The restaurant also serves a handful of low-ABV cocktails ($14-$17) like the bon vivant, made with shochu, dry vermouth, oleo saccharum, Pescadero sea salt and bay laurel oil; or the low tide, featuring an aloe aperitif, cucumber-parsley cordial and tonic.

Details: Cafe Vivant is open 5-9 p.m Tuesdays-Thursdays and 5-9:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays at 720 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park; cafevivantca.com. Somm Cellars is open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. daily; sommcellarswine.com.