Which New York restaurant do French winemakers like to visit when they're in town? If you guessed Le Bernardin, Jean Georges or Daniel, you wouldn't necessarily be incorrect. But if you said La Mangeoire, you'd clearly have the inside track. A Sutton Place by Provence fixture for more than three decades, La Mangeoire has more recently become a place where winemakers from France choose to dine.

A dining area at La Mangeoire on Second Avenue in Manhattan Ramsay de Give for The Wall Street Journal

More often than not, they're eating Christian DeLouvrier's poulet roti, a.k.a. roast chicken—especially if it's stuffed with black truffles and foie gras, though the former is sadly out of season by now. (The poulet roti fermier jus naturel will have to do.)

The roast chicken is a signature dish from the Gascogny-born Mr. DeLouvrier, who first won fame as a four-star chef in New York in the 1990s at two now-defunct restaurant hotels (Les Celebrities in the Essex House and the Maurice at Le Parker Meridian) and more recently as a three-star chef at Alan Ducasse. Mr. Delouvrier decided to become a "bistronomist" when he joined restaurant owner Gerard Donato at La Mangeoire two years ago. (Bistronomy is the Paris-born trend of famous chefs who eschew fancy restaurants to produce basic but high-quality bistro fare.)

Mr. Donato was considered quite clever, and lucky, to have landed Mr. Delouvrier, though clearly the feeling is mutual—as is their love of wine. Mr. Delouvrier credits Mr. Donato, a native of Provence, with the more "technical" palate. "Gerard knows vintages; I just know when a wine goes well with food or not," said the chef modestly. "The food has to complement the wine. The food cannot disregard the beauty of the wine." (What a great line.)

The restaurant's owner, Gerard Donato, left, and Chef Christian DeLouvrier Ramsay de Give for The Wall Street Journal

The two Frenchmen also differ when it comes to their favorite (French) wines. Mr. Donato is more inclined to his native Provencal rosés (there are always three on his wine list, even in winter), while Mr. Delouvrier favors red Bordeaux. "It's close to where I was born," he explained.

They're both also fans of Cornas, the powerful red wine of the northern Rhone, particularly those made by superstar producer/consultant Jean Luc Colombo. Mr. Delouvrier even had what sounded like a novel pairing idea: dark chocolate. He claimed it paired as well with Cornas as does his trademark chicken dish. Mr. Colombo is a "good friend of the restaurant," according to Mr. Donato, and a couple Colombo Cornas bottlings appear on the list, though, alas, they're two of his rather expensive wines. (Mr. Colombo also makes some affordable wines.)

The list is curated by Mr. Donato and features a mix of reasonably priced "French country" wines from Provence and Gascony as well as those from more famous regions like Bordeaux and the Rhone and a few oddballs from California and Italy. (Does anyone really want Duckhorn Merlot with coq au vin or need a glass of Pinot Grigio at a restaurant that looks a bit like a corner of Provence?)

Former Daniel sommelier-turned-wine-merchant Jean Luc Le Du is a big fan of Chef Delouvrier's cooking—in fact, he holds regular dinners with French winemakers at the restaurant. Earlier this week, for example, Mr. Le Du brought Francois Labet from the Burgundy estate Chateau Latour Clos de Vougeot. "Christian's type of cooking does well with French wine," Mr. Le Du said. "And Christian will work with the wines." Mr. Le Du also holds regular Sommelier Tuesday dinners at Le Mangeoire. These are open to the first 10 people who sign up and feature seven or eight different wines chosen by Mr. Le Du. French country wines were the theme at the last Le Mangeoire dinner, which must have surely pleased Mr. Donato.

When I dined at Le Mangeoire earlier this week, I brought a friend from California who had once lived in Provence. In fact, she lived in Antibes, the hometown of Mr. Donato. (They compared memories while speaking French, which I more or less followed.)

We ordered the Classique de Christian Delouvrier, the Poulet Fermier Rôti, Jus Naturel, Grosses Frites and Cœur de Laitue en Salade. While the skin was glossy and crackling, the chicken itself was tender and moist. We agreed it was one of the best we'd ever tasted outside of France. The same was true of the frites, which served as a bed for the chicken and were more or less the shape—and size—of Mount St. Michel. We washed it all down with glasses of Mr. Donato's red-cherry-inflected Provencal rosé (2011 Domaine L'Alycastre Rose) and eventually requested a check from a waiter named Jacques.

Maybe the reason French winemakers love to visit La Mangeoire is because it's not so much like a piece of New York as it is a little corner of France.