When blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Wydown Shoe Service (7637 Wydown near Hanley Rd.) closed up shop last summer, Zoe Robinson thought it would make a dandy little bar/cafe…as well as double as a waiting area for her 35-seat I Fratellini restaurant across the street.
The long-time local restaurateur has always created unique restaurants — from the original Cafe Zoe in the then up-and-coming Lafayette Square, to Zoe Pan-Asian in the CWE (birthed in an era when Pan-Asian was de rigueur, not a denunciation), the award-winning Bobo Noodle House near Wash U, and of course, I Fratellini, the restaurant no one talks about lest it not remain “their” place.
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Our guess is that this place will be unique in some way as well, but instead of trying to pigeonhole the concept, Robinson described it by saying what it would NOT be: a tapas bar, a wine bar, a speakeasy, a mini-brasserie, a mini-bistro. Rather, it would be a “petite bar/cafe,” she said, “one with a French accent.” And one that should open its doors in early- to mid-summer.
Another thing it would not be is a cocktail bar, per se. “Sure, we will have cocktails, but we won’t go crazy with it,” Robinson explained. “In so many of the new bars today, by the time you get finished trudging through the entire cocktal list, you’re worn out….and you need a drink.”
The new place will be small–smaller than even I Fratellini, but with patio seating–with a well-chosen (but again, small) selection of appetizers and entrees, plus wines and champagnes. And it is as yet unnamed. So, in the spirit of Tom Schmidt’s Franco/Nico progression, we hereby submit one…Frère.
Photo courtesy of Clayton-Richmond Heights Patch.
