Some restaurants you love (or dislike) right away. La Petite Grocery is one of many restaurants whose regulars have learned to like it. (And I'd better say that some have learned to not care for it.) We are in a time when the French bistro menu has become so overdone around town, with so many excellent practitioners, that such a place has to be brilliant to stand out at all. La Petite Grocery is not brilliant, but it is good enough and attractive enough that dinner there (more so than lunch) makes an engaging evening. Particularly if you live Uptown and are meeting other Uptowners. Then you'll run into others you know, and the camaraderie will warm up the evening. Particularly after the bartender drizzles some absinthe down over a sugar cube for you. A good place to go on a summer evening.
One of the two or three brightest lights on the brilliant Magazine Street restaurant row, the Grocery has matured into a reliable, comfortable, sophisticated bistro. Behind the illusion of French technique are first-class local groceries, and the originality and fluidity that keeps things interesting. La Petite Grocery was the last vestige of the old Peristyle dining experience, but it has moved on to establish its own style.
This building formerly housed Von Der Haar's Grocery, one of the great gourmet food emporiums in the middle of the last century. The restaurant opened in 2004 under the management of Anton and Diane Schulte, who left in 2006 to open Bistro Daisy. Chef Justin Devillier, who has been there since the beginning, took over the kitchen in 2007. He has since bought the restaurant, insuring a bright future. His wife Mia manages the dining room.
One big room under a high, pressed-tin ceiling is subdivided by low walls into a mix of intimate spaces and one larger dining room. Banquettes are along one wall. Sidewalk tables were recently added. The best tables are those in front of the bar, separated from the rest of the place by a divider with a mirror that provides occasionally sexy moments. The service staff is well-versed and polite. And the background jazz is muted, making this a rare quiet dining venue.
Start at the bar. They make good drinks, including classic absinthe.
| Attitude | 0 |
|---|---|
| Environment | 2 |
| Hipness | 2 |
| Local Color | 2 |
| Service | 2 |
| Value | 1 |
| Wine | 1 |
