Photo credit:
Separated by a two-mile stretch of Clairmont Road, longtime French restaurants Petite Auberge and Violette have both survived and thrived for decades. Despite their similarities, neither ever felt a strong sense of competition. Both knew their strengths; Petite Auberge served old-school Auguste Escoffier-inspired continental cuisines (including, rather mysteriously, several German dishes), while Violette offered classic Provençal fare and event space. This month, the two restaurants have combined their talents into one new French dining destination. The name? Petite Violette.Dining had always been a family affair for the Gropps, who founded Petite Auberge back in 1974. Patriarch Wolfgang Gropp started as a chef touring Europe and moved to Atlanta in 1965 to work at Chateau Fleur de Lis, one of Atlanta’s first French eateries. After serving as chef there for nine years, he opened Petite Auberge in the Toco Hills shopping center, fulfilling a lifelong dream.Wolfgang passed his knowledge, experience, and love for creating classic French dishes like beef Wellington, coq au vin and rack of lamb down to his sons Michael and Anthony. Both fell in love with the restaurant world on their own accord and have been running Petite Auberge together for the past decade. Michael found his niche handling front of house with reservations and event planning, while Anthony gravitated to cooking and is now head chef.“We were born into the restaurant,” Michael says. “I was 10 years old when it opened and have always remembered serving the classic French continental menu.”Michael says French restaurants were very popular in the ’70s and have recently experienced a resurgence. At Petite Auberge, little has changed since the restaurant’s opening; dining there has always felt a bit like stepping back in time. But over the past couple of years, the Toco Hills Shopping Center has been under construction and the Gropps felt the plaza no longer fit the restaurant’s style.
No value assignedSimultaneously, up Clairmont Road just past I-85, Violette owner Stephanie Belcher was ready to retire. She and the Gropps had been comparing notes and discussing a partnership for nearly 15 years, and decided that the time had come for Petite Auberge to move in with Violette and take over management. “We have both known Stephanie for a long time and said she was happy to sign ‘to the boys,’” Anthony says.Designed and built by Violette’s founding chef Guy Luck, the quaint gray building that now houses Petite Violette is larger than it seems from the outside. Luck, a native of Strasbourg, France, first opened Violette in a different location back in 1988, but saw potential in the overlooked strip of property and relocated there on Bastille Day 1995. The location often serves as a banquet facility and can easily accommodate up to 200 guests.The new Petite Violette’s décor is simple but classic French, with dark wood tables and white tablecloths. The event space off the main dining room features more than a dozen fine art paintings and a long mirrored wall that reflects baby showers and lunching Bridge Club ladies. Petite Auberge’s famous olive oil and vinegar boutique has journeyed to the new space and features a collection of approximately 30 different infusions to be tasted, blended, bottled and sold.It’s not often two restaurants of such enduring notoriety merge, resulting in a juggle of recipes and compromise to fill the menu space. Violette’s head chef Mameleye Mbaye collaborated for a few months with Anthony to create a new Petite Violette menu that appeals to both sets of clientele. “Cooking different things and trying different techniques is actually at the very core of French cooking,” Anthony says.
No value assignedOn opening day Jan. 9, Petite Violette was ready to keep pace with a busy lunch crowd. Longtime staff members from both restaurants managed to facilitate an elegant midday dining experience within the allotted hour of an average lunch break. The lunch menu offers classic fare, from fresh salads with house-made vinaigrettes and French onion soup ($8) to escargots “Provencale” ($12) simmered in sherry cream sauce and served on a puff pastry.Main dishes include bouchee a la reine ($13), a delicate pastry filled with chicken, potato, mushrooms, carrots and green peas in a creamy béchamel sauce. It’s essentially the French version of chicken pot pie, but the house-made puff pastry adds elegance. Crepes du jour ($15) come with a different savory stuffing each day, like tender crab meat and chives.Fine food aside, the new Petite Violette family is best demonstrated in the sharing of their house-made yeast rolls, a new twist on Violette’s brioche and the first taste of a new legacy.
“Sometimes when restaurants merge there can be egos, or pans flying through the kitchen, but we haven’t had any of that at all,” Anthony says. “We both want to produce the best possible product and will do anything we can to figure it out how to accomplish that.”
Petite Violette. 2948 Clairmont Road. 404-633-3363.