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restaurantnews

Your guide to what's happening on the restaurant and bar scene WORDS LUCY BRITNER & NEIL SIMPSON

FRENCH REVOLUTION

Don't worry: we're talking Chateaubriand and Champagne

here, not historically revolting peasants. The London restaurant

scene will soon be awash with all things français, thanks to a

collection of spring openings. The team behind perma-booked

Paris bistro Le Chateaubriand is opening the equally informal

Le Chabanais on Mayfair's Mount Street in early April and

another Parisian heavyweight, Les 110 de Taillevent, has

earmarked Marylebone's Cavendish Square for a June launch.

Meanwhile in Fitzrovia, Big Fernand has brought le hamburgé

to the neighbourhood, and Allan Pickett (former head chef at

Plateau) and Bodean's BBQ founder Andre Blais are preparing

the laid-back, French-inspired Piquet for Newman Street (think

slow-braised short rib, pommes purée and parsley pesto).

Elsewhere, Parisian celeb haunt Les Gourmets des Ternes will

unveil a second London site in Knightsbridge this May, while

patisserie Maître Choux will open in the French expat heartland

of South Kensington, showing how a Michelin-starred chef

fashions a bon choux or two. Who needs the Channel Tunnel?