Ludo Lefebvre Wants to Bring Petit Trois to Denver

Los Angeles chef Ludo Lefebvre is eyeing Denver as a possible outpost for his beloved bistro Petit Trois, which only just opened its second location there. This more casual counterpart to Lefebvre’s Trois Mec restaurant is known in LA for its near-ideal renditions of French classics — omelets, steak frites, escargot.

Petit Trois’ second location is a bigger Sherman Oaks brasserie, and Lefebvre recently told Restaurant Hospitality that he’d like to expand the concept farther across Southern California and possibly to Denver, where he has family ties. There’s a big “maybe” attached to that Denver expansion, though, with no timeline or location yet in sight. If it’s any indication, Lefebvre is a powerhouse on LA’s restaurant scene, where he and partners Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo (of Animal, Son of a Gun, and Jon & Vinny’s fame) run some of the city’s best restaurants and are planning for more. The three also are investors in Kismet, a wildly popular Middle Eastern spot.

Meanwhile, a larger French cuisine comeback is happening across the country. In Denver, if 2017 was the year of the Italian restaurant renaissance, then 2018 is shaping up to be its French revolution. Late last year, Lon Symensma announced LeRoux, a new LoDo European bistro that will channel the chef’s classical French kitchen training. Max MacKissock and company early this year announced Morin, a modern French restaurant coming to the former Wazee Supper Club. Three of Mizuna’s top staffers are about to launch their own Bistro Georgette this summer at Avanti F&B. And New York-based Le Bilboquet will land in Cherry Creek North by early 2019. By the way, Bon Ami is opening in the former Telegraph restaurant space on Pennsylvania Street next week. More on that coming.

• Ludo Lefebvre Wants to Expand Petit Trois Across the Country [ELA]
• Ludovic Lefebvre plots growth for Petit Trois [Restaurant Hospitality]