Happy Boy crew’s French bistro will be a timeless two-storey stunner

Jordan and Cameron Votan like to talk about Chinese and French as the two pillars of global cuisine. It’s neat, then, that a Chinese restaurant and a French restaurant will soon be the two pillars of the Votans’ East Street dining precinct in Fortitude Valley.

Happy Boy, the brothers’ Chinese restaurant, is already one of Brisbane’s most popular dinner spots – a 120-seat machine that punches out regional plates and terrific, small-producer Australian wine for a dedicated army of regulars.

In early April it will be joined by Petite, a 110-seat French bistro that will serve affordable French share plates and wine.

The two eateries will book-end the strip of East Street eateries, Petite taking over a couple of conjoined premises on the corner with Ann Street.

“They’re such wide cuisines,” Jordan says. “Some of my favourite cuisines are quite narrow, but with both French and Chinese, it varies so much around the country. There’s so much to choose from or explore on a menu.”

Petite won’t be a fine diner and isn’t intended as an occasion restaurant. Instead, the Votans want to create an approachable, everyday venue much like Happy Boy, or perhaps neighbouring Snack Man – also owned by the brothers – which focuses on smaller Chinese plates matched to European wine.

“We want to bring French to our customers who maybe dine out three times a week,” Jordan says. “Yes, French is a relatively expensive cuisine, but we also really want to concentrate on being smart and finding ways to use secondary cuts and do really cool food – food that’s delicious and thoughtful but affordable, and that people can come in to enjoy multiple times a week.”

Where it will be different to Happy Boy and Snack Man is the fit-out, with the venue featuring an expansive mezzanine, a lengthy downstairs bar designed for counter dining, and a line of booths along the Ann Street side of the premises.

“We love minimal, and this will still be minimal and timeless,” Jordan says. “But there will definitely be a lot more attention to detail than the other restaurants.”

The Petite team has been busy test-bedding the concept next door at Mini, which began operating in the old Kid Curry space in late September. Much of chef Aubrey Courtel’s Mini menu will migrate over to Petite as soon as the venue is finished.

Expect about 20 dishes, such as potted confit duck with whipped potato and comte cream; baked scallops with chorizo, celeriac cream and bread crumb; chicken cordon bleu; duck a l’orange; steak frites; and pan-fried fish in a brown butter, lemon and caper sauce.

“A lot of those favourites will appear here but in a slightly different way,” Jordan says.

A 50-bottle wine list will, naturally, focus on French drops, with 20 available by the glass. Snack Man’s hefty, award-winning collection will act as a cellar.

“We love wine, and that’s going to be a hero of the place,” Jordan says. “The 20 different dishes will be matched to 20 different wines by the glass, so people can choose their own adventure.

“People can choose a bunch of dishes for the table, everyone has some bits and pieces, and then maybe go for another round, and take that journey through food and wine.”

Petite is scheduled to open in early April on the corner of Ann and East streets in Fortitude Valley.

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