Jacques Loupiac comes from a long line of bakers who made their living selling pastries in the south of France. So it’s no accident that the veteran restaurateur named his renowned French restaurant in Rye, New York, La Panetière, which is the French word for “baker.” His uncle, however, ran a restaurant, which came to represent an ideal for the young Loupiac, who says that in France you’re destined to follow your family’s vocation. “When you’re a child and you see things in your home — your grandmother making foie gras, your uncle baking bread — it sticks with you,” explains Loupiac, sniffing the air as if smelling the aromas of his family’s cooking. “I would accompany family members to gather snails after the rain.”

These early influences inspired Loupiac to attend hotel school in Nice and then eventually to find his way to the United States, where in the early 1970s he went to work as a captain at La Crémaillère, one of the oldest and most celebrated restaurants in Westchester County. La Crémaillère has launched the careers of many chefs and restaurateurs who have gone on to open their own establishments, as Loupiac did twenty-one years ago. La Panetière, in turn, has spawned its own flock of acolytes.

Only two other dining establishments existed in Rye at the time Loupiac opened La Panetière (now there are more than a dozen), and Loupiac’s choice of a circa-1800s ship-builder’s residence set the tone for all that takes place within. Everything about the place — from the lavender and flower-filled rock garden at the entrance to the authentic café chairs from Provence to the hand-painted terra cotta cloches that bear the charming bird motif of the village of Moustiers — speaks of the French countryside.

Loupiac has taken great pains with the décor, turning one of the upstairs banquet rooms into a greenhouse, with floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides and a glass ceiling with built-in shades to soften the sun’s glare. There is not a corner of the restaurant that doesn’t exude charm.

Loupiac, who seems to have left no stone unturned in pleasing his public, is a most gracious host. For the past ten years, for example, he has been giving his female guests a mini tote filled with chocolates. “It’s a natural thing to want to give a gift,” he explains. It’s no wonder, then, that at least 50 percent of his business is from loyal customers.

Loupiac’s passion for the business led him to explore every aspect of it, from working in the kitchen and at the pastry station to managing the front of the house. Other restaurateurs have succeeded by opening multiple locations and hiring others to run them, visiting only periodically. Loupiac’s model is more old-school. “In my case,” he says, “being here all the time and being careful that things don’t fall into a lull — that’s the way I was trained. You have to be there.”

Despite his best efforts, La Panetière experienced a sloughing off of business after 9/11, as did many restaurants. This provoked Loupiac to do a bit of soul-searching about his business practices and his mission as a restaurateur. “We have a name, and most people know what to expect when they come here,” he says, including the high price tag of a typical meal at La Panetière. “When I felt the pinch, I thought of opening a café. But that’s not me. If I had to come to a place that I don’t like, I might as well throw in the towel.”

Loupiac hit upon an ingenious compromise: Offer customers half-orders of everything on the menu at half the price. That way, he reasoned, “the customers spend what they want and eat what they want … and we don’t lose our identity.” Now, lunches, served every day except Saturday and Monday, offer à la carte selections of La Panetière’s remarkable contemporary French cuisine, served in half- portions with prices to match (appetizers from $4.50 to $16; entrées from $10 to $18).

Chef de Cuisine Jean-Marc Cabirol and Chef Pâtissier Didier Berlioz pour just as much creativity and devotion into the lunch menu as they do the prix fixe dinners that cost $48 for two courses or $62 for three courses (not including dessert or wine). La Panetière’s menu is built around seasonal ingredients provided by the best purveyors, with whom Loupiac has established longtime relationships. “We try to make the food as light and flavorful as we know how,” he says. “We try not to be repetitious with ingredients in the dishes themselves. And if something doesn’t work because it’s too adventurous, we change it.”

With a staff of forty (“That’s why I’ll never get rich,” quips Loupiac), every aspect of the business has been elevated to an art form.

On a hutch by the bar, there’s a collection of Santons, dolls from Provence. This particular tableaux is of men playing cards, from a scene in a popular French movie. The dolls depict the famous actors in the film, who are known collectively in France as the “Eternals.” Loupiac’s apparent affection for these figurines seems a poignant metaphor for his love of owning this restaurant. While he may never achieve the vast financial success that others in his profession have, what he’s created at La Panetière is more lasting than fame or money.