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There’s more than one way to gentrify, as Pit Stop’s owner Laurent Brunacci—former chef of Smith Street’s traditional bistro Bar Tabac—makes clear. Sure, bringing French food to Red Hook’s still-developing Columbia Street waterfront might sound a little presumptuous, but when you serve it in a 1960s Formula 1-themed diner with a huge, kid-friendly backyard deck and a pétanque court (think French bocce), you’ve got a family-welcoming bistro that’s so out there, it fits right in. Inside Pit Stop’s boxy interior, pressed tin walls sport pictures of famous drivers, but in pleasant weather you barely see the tightly spaced tables before you’re hustled into the balmy, relaxed backyard, where, likely as not, there’s a pétanque game under way. The food is equally unassuming—and rewarding. Mixing bistro classics like blue cheese-covered steak and shoestring-thin pommes frites with Court Street crowd-pleasers like vegetarian linguini and mango seaweed salad, the restaurant blends old and new with aplomb—sometimes even in the same dish. Warm duck salad, for instance, is set off by delicate grape halves and truffle oil. The warm, fruit syrup-laced chocolate cake, however, is the true winner. — Jessica Branch

Mon.—Thu., 5 p.m.—10 p.m., three-courses, $21.95

Mushroom risotto with parmesan, $4.50; grilled sirloin steak with melted blue cheese, $19.95; warm chocolate cake, $4.50