Philly Goes Gallic

We’ve joked about the massive influx of French restaurants to Queens Village and Bella Vista a few times before… and now it’s a geniune Daily News trend piece:


At Coquette Bistro and Raw Bar, the menu has a French accent, but the dishes are reassuringly familiar: rich onion soup, a grilled hanger steak with a pat of butter melting on top, roasted chicken with mashed potatoes, and the like.

The Queen Village restaurant-bar is part of a new wave of places aiming to be authentically French, but not so haute you can’t throw back a beer with your plate of mussels and frites, or stop by for a glass of wine and a light meal of salade or paté.

These newcomers aren’t trying to compete with Le Bec-Fin. They want to be your mid-priced, go-to neighborhood spot.

Cochon is a country French BYOB on the border between Queen Village and Bella Vista that debuted last month. Zinc Bistro a Vins is a wine reinvention, from the owner of Center City’s Caribou Cafe, of the former Wash West BYOB La Boheme as a restaurant and wine bar.

All we can say to that is: Pass the flammenkuchen.

Let frite-dom ring [Daily News]

[Image via Daily News]

Philly Goes Gallic