Welcome to the 1st Quarter Newsletter and there's plenty to tell you all !
Well... They say new year, new look? But enough about my new haircut and specs and on to more important things like some of the changes we're making at La Petite Bouchée this spring.
We like to know who our diners are and what they expect from us, we have all sorts of mechanisms on our website for understanding our audience better and in the year since we moved to Devon and started this journey almost 9 months ago we've met some very discerning diners as well as some very passionate foodies.
We know from numbers which menus are popular and we're not afraid to ask for honest feedback on where we can improve our offering.
A different course
One of the things we have found is that many people think there is too much food. Not a criticism we are too concerned about but one we have listened to. We want our diners to have choice. So from March 2018 there will a choice of three different dining tiers, to suit both tummies and pockets.
2 courses - £22.50
3 courses - £28.5o
4 courses - £32.00
Just let us know when you order your food, how many courses you'd like !
Raising the steaks !
We recently conducted a survey on Twitter asking our near 6K followers what their favourite French bistro classics were. Steak Frites came out on top with 50% of the votes followed very swiftly by Moules Frites at 39% The remaining 11% went to Fruit de Mer.
From March onwards you'll find them all on the menu:
Steak Frites - Beautiful hand cut Bavette Steak, served with our fabulously crispy French Fries and a pot of our homemade Bèarnaise Sauce
*we'll let you know which farm they're from each month
Moules Frites - 1 kilo of Classic (Exmouth Mussels) Moules Mariniere ( Butter, shallots and white wine) served up with our fabulously crispy French Fries and a pot of our homemade Garlic Aioli
Fruit De Mer - A platter of seasonal seafood served up with our delicious Mignonette sauce for your oysters ( seasonal £ supplements are applicable on this dish)
The Empire Strikes Back
Nope, nothing to do with Star Wars but everything to do with the dishes from around the old French colonies. As well as classic French dishes and your bistro favourites you'll be seeing so additional dishes from places such as Morocco, Vietnam, The Lebanon, Sri Lanka and Louisiana. We can't wait to start making all those fabulous spices which go into each dish.
These wonderful new inclusions will open up our vegetarian and vegan offering too and with the addition of some of our street food favourites including our loaded Socca a gluten-free, vegan friendly flat bread which hails from Nice we'll be able to offer you something a little different as well as all those classic French dishes you love.
We'll be sharing further information on some of the dishes coming up as well including some of our recipes.
The Good Life
As you know, we have definite policies about food waste, recycling of oil and where we buy our ingredients from. We do not use foodservice companies, we don't need to because we only have a limited amount of covers and two services a week. We do not use frozen products except our chips. All our sorbets and ice creams are homemade.
We'll be taking things even further this year and growing more of our own fruit and vegetables, micro herbs and edible flowers. We are very strong believers in Field ( no pun intended)to fork and both Caroline and I and Linzi and Nigel will be raising the bar and planting up from seeds some hopefully very exciting vegetables, salads and herbs which should grace our dishes by early summer. Between us last year nearly all our vegetables, salads, micro herbs, herbs and flowers were homegrown. We're very proud of that. We'll also continue to serve up our own chutneys, pickles and potions moving forward. Even our olive trees have flowers forming so watch this space !
We'll be canning and bottling up some of our produce for you to buy in the restaurant or via the website very soon including mustards, vinaigrettes, sauces and pickles.
Come Fly With Me
We are currently working with more local suppliers, trying to get that 25 mile radius down to 10 miles. We are talking with a couple of new wine merchants who can produce a list which still rivals that of our London wine merchant which is affordable and can be drunk by the glass if you are driving. We'll also be introducing wine flights for those of you who would like have a different dining experience. We'll be updating you soon once the wines have been finalised.
And finally......
We'll have been open a year on May 5th and we'll be celebrating with a 8 course degustation menu, with or without wine flight. There are just 12 covers left for what promises to be a fabulous night of delicious food. If you would like to book this date then just press the link HERE The menu is coming very soon.
You can find the menus for FEBRUARY, MARCH & APRIL on the website HERE
If you're not already a subscriber and want to keep up to date with what is happening and catch up with offers then simply fill in the sign up form on the home page. If you'd like to know more or have a question then just get in touch via EMAIL or call us on 07738 703450