Philly’s New French-ish Revolution

The half chicken at Side Eye / Photograph courtesy of Side Eye

“French-ish.”

That’s what the team at the new Side Eye in Queen Village calls what they’re doing. French but not, you know, French. French without the accent, the elitism, the bar to entry, the cost. French for the neighborhood. French that’s for everyone.

And French-ish is cool. It’s something I can get behind, because this town is badly in need of a little French-ish revolution, and Side Eye — with its beef tartare and beef-fat saltines, moules marinières in a witbier broth with crab fat and pork belly, and dripping peppercorn burgers dressed in beef jus and Fromager d’Affinois — fits with the direction that a lot of big-name Philly restaurants have been leaning lately.

Think about it. For years, French food was seen as stuffy and out of touch, not exciting enough for the new breed of restaurateurs who were too busy obsessing over Asian flavors, hyper-regionalism, overlooked Eastern European cuisines, American homespun recipes, or just making bank on updating and artisanal-izing the old favorites (pizzas, pastas, burgers, etc.).

And I’m not just talking about Philly, but nationally. There were some holdouts, sure — a few classically French spots that were dug in deep and catered to those with a taste for snails and mother sauces — but new openings went out of their way to say that, while they might be utilizing French techniques in their kitchens (always a buzzword to the dining class), the food itself was anything but.

But lately, the pendulum has started to swing back. There’s been a rush of French (and French-adjacent) concepts hitting the scene. We have places like Supérette and Medium Rare going the market/deli/bistro route; Fleur’s bringing size and the weight of big names; plus Provenance and the upcoming Soufiane leaning into French fusion — and suddenly there’s this long list of new French restaurants in the conversation.

Which is good, because the whole stuffy/elitist argument against French cuisine never made much sense to me anyway. I know there’s this notion of fancied-up, foie-gras-and-caviar excess baked into the traditional American understanding of French food — of tiny plates served under silver cloches in hushed dining rooms to aging rich people — and that kind of stuff absolutely exists. But French cuisine is as deep and malleable as any other. And some of the best, most comfortable, most deeply satisfying meals I’ve had in my life have been in the loud and crowded dining rooms of raucous French restaurants that understood how just as much joy can be derived from a bowl of mussels and a $12 glass of house white as can be from a triple-digit tasting menu eaten in awe-struck silence.

And Side Eye seems to get that, too.

A Cosmo / Photograph courtesy of Side Eye

A little history: Once upon a time, the space at 623 South 6th Street in Queen Village was one of the most well-known and respected French restaurants in the city. It’s where Bistrot La Minette used to live — chef Peter Woolsey’s warm, comforting and dependable French spot which, maybe more than any other single restaurant outside Chinatown, is the place that convinced me years ago that something was really happening in Philly and that I wanted to write about it.

Woolsey stood on that line for 16 years, cooking snails and lapin rôti. But Bistrot La Minette closed back in the summer of 2024, leaving a gaping hole in the scene because there really wasn’t anyone else doing what Woolsey did. Or at least not doing it as well.

Enter Side Eye. Owned by Hank Allingham (a former restaurant finance guy now making a go at opening something of his own), it’s now living in the space on 6th Street that Bistrot La Minette once called home. Which, yes, presents a big-shoes kind of problem (even if La Minette has been gone for more than a year now), but Allingham has brought in an all-star team of Philly industry veterans to make it work, including exec chef Finn Connors (who did time at Sally, Wilder, and Osteria back in the day), beverage director Ryan Foster (ex of Messina Social Club, Ranstead Room, and elsewhere), and Abbey Smith on the floor (a Starr vet who was most recently at The Love).

And while you can still kinda recognize the bones of La Minette (and its brick walls) under the redesign, the new space is now done up in pale blues with chocolatey brown booth seats, a 20-seat wraparound bar, room for 40 on the floor, a private dining room, and a patio (if it ever warms up again). What they’re aiming for is something easy and approachable — an everyday kind of spot. And that’s something that the bistro model (as La Minette) did perfectly, and which their notion of “French-ish” plays right into.

“My favorite type of place is somewhere I can go and get exactly what I want at that moment,” says Allingham. “Whether you want to watch a game, have a cocktail, go on a date, or just eat solo at the bar, it should offer a reliable, thoughtful, and well-executed version of that experience. That’s what we’re doing at Side Eye.”

The menu is short and sweet, equal parts chicken liver mousse and deviled eggs with Spanish olives and anchovy; mushroom duxelles and house-rolled tagliolini. On the bar side, there are French bottles and California cabs, classic cocktails, $12 glasses of German riesling, and Budweiser on tap.

It’s a restaurant that seems built from the start with an understanding of how perfectly comforting French food can be when approached without the reverence and slavish devotion to tradition that marked so many old-school French restaurants. The rejection of that specific stereotype seems fundamental to the resurgence of French restaurants in Philly right now. One of the best things about eating at Bistrot La Minette when it was still open was that it never felt special, but always felt good. It was warm and welcoming, never snooty or highbrow. It was as French as you could get, but was still just part of the neighborhood.

And if Side Eye can pull off that same kind of trick with its bowls of French onion soup and frosted mugs of Bud, that will be something truly revolutionary: a changing of the guard without a change of address.

Side Eye is open seven days a week for lunch, dinner, and weekend brunches. There’s also a late-night menu that kicks off at 10 p.m. every night, featuring raw bar items (oysters, shrimp cocktails, that kind of thing) to carry the place through midnight (and 1 a.m. on the weekends).