As its name implies, Voulez Vous (“would you like\u2026 ?” in French) promises an inviting and adventurous culinary experience.
\n“We\u2019re open to anything. Come in and give it a shot,” said 22-year-old Christian Mal\u00e9cot \u2014 co-proprietor along with father Michel, owner of The French Gourmet \u2014 of the new bistro and bakery (formerly Papalulu\u2019s), which recently opened at 2168 Avenida de la Playa in La Jolla Shores.
\n“Come on in and let us show you what we have \u2014 you\u2019ll like it,” promised Teri Rider, who\u2019s helping the Mal\u00e9cots rebrand their new restaurant with a fresh new color scheme, menu, d\u00e9cor and ambiance.
\n“We want to create this beach vibe of \u2018No shirt, no shoes \u2014 no problem,\u2019 ” Christian said, adding the new restaurant\u2019s welcome mat is soon to include a “hungry hour” from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., where people can come in from the beach and give it a try.
\nA recent USD graduate with a double major in business and philosophy, Christian Mal\u00e9cot, who attended the French American International School in La Jolla, was anticipating doing marketing and sales for his father\u2019s catering business. Fate, however, had other plans.
\nWhen a real-estate friend approached with the prospect of purchasing Papalulu\u2019s \u2014 which Christian admitted “wasn\u2019t on the radar” for him or his father \u2014 he said they nonetheless decided it was too good an opportunity to pass on.
\n“We decided to jump on it and try something new,” he said.
\nThus, Voulez Vous was born. Combining Christian\u2019s youthful vigor with his father\u2019s wealth of knowledge from 33 years\u2019 experience running The French Gourmet, the new restaurant venture holds great promise.
\n“This is a project we did together,” said Michel noting, paternalistically, that while Christian “has a lot to learn,” he is nonetheless “rising to the occasion.”
\n“I don\u2019t want him to make the same mistakes that I made,” said Michel, who is hoping his business acumen will rub off on his son.
\nMichel said the recipe for success in the restaurant business doesn\u2019t contain any “secret” ingredients.
\nAsked to distill it down, Michel replied, “Work really hard. Offer quality. Give people value. Be charitable to the community. Just try to not misrepresent what you are.”
\nMichel said The French Gourmet has always benefited from being a “casual” French restaurant not afraid to break the traditional mold.
\nChristian and Voulez Vous are carrying on that tradition.
\n“I\u2019m going to do steak and seafood for dinner. That\u2019s how we\u2019re going to really be recognized,” he said. Dinner will be added to the restaurant\u2019s breakfast and lunch menus once the beer and wine license gets transferred over from Papalulu\u2019s. “That\u2019s how I\u2019ve decided to create the identity around the restaurant,” he said.
\nRebranding the restaurant has extended all the way down to changing its color scheme inside and outside on its open-air courtyard, which has been repainted with a sprightly French Polynesian-themed mural by artist Virginia Ann Holt, who helped put the finishing touches on the Mal\u00e9cot\u2019s vision for the new restaurant with her paint brush.
\n“It was nondescript,” Holt said of the existing color scheme, noting “bistro” to her connotes something international. The French, she added, have been everywhere in the world including Polynesia, and the color scheme was born.
\n“Red and yellow are colors that elicit hunger,” noted Christian. “Our idea was blending the two, the red on top fading into the orange and yellow. It just kind of came together.”
\nRider agreed.
\n“The colors are spot on, not only pulling in the tropical influence, but bringing in the local area and also some of the influences from the menu,” said Rider. “What we\u2019re trying to do is create a cohesive brand so that we can use it as a very recognizable element in local marketing and San Diego marketing.”
\nChristian said he\u2019s trying to keep the new restaurant\u2019s menu simple, while adding some bakery delights brought over daily from The French Gourmet.
\n“I\u2019m hoping Voulez Vous will be an extension of French Gourmet under a different name to appeal to a different market,” he said, adding the new restaurant has French Gour-met\u2019s famous eggs benedict.
\nChristian hopes soon to expand and customize the cr\u00eapes on his menu so customers can build their own.
\nNoting people these days are taking business lunches where they need to get in and out quickly, Christian said his lunch menu, including baguettes, paninis and salads, is perfectly suited to customers\u2019 needs.
\n“Our dinner menu is going to be much more expansive,” he said, hinting it will be a hybrid of traditional French with a European flair and include some American favorites as well.
\n“It\u2019s filling a void,” said Rider of Mal\u00e9cot\u2019s emerging new restaurant brand. “There\u2019s nothing else like it here. People are going to have more choices. I think they\u2019ll be pleased.”
\nFor more information about Voulez Vous Bistro and Boulangerie, call (858) 353-5255.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As its name implies, Voulez Vous (“would you like\u2026 ?” in French) promises an inviting and adventurous culinary experience. “We\u2019re open to anything. Come in and give it a shot,” said 22-year-old Christian Mal\u00e9cot \u2014 co-proprietor along with father Michel, owner of The French Gourmet \u2014 of the new bistro and bakery (formerly Papalulu\u2019s), which […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":281321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Voulez Vous adds a little French to the Shores","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}