The Eagle: French restaurant Le Petit Cochon expected to open in early September in College Station

Le Petit Cochon, which means “the little pig” in French, is a new French restaurant that is scheduled to open in early September off Texas 6 in College Station.

The restaurant will be in the building formerly occupied by Pie in the Sky near Tower Point. It will be owned and operated by Tom Kenney and Tony Abdalla, who are partners of Napa Flats in College Station.

Kenney said Le Petit Cochon will be a small and casual upscale restaurant. The restaurant is expected to seat around 80 people with room at a bar and tables on an outside patio. Kenney added the restaurant will be open for dinner only throughout the week and for brunch Friday through Sunday.

“We’re really transforming a small space into something really comfortable,” Kenney said.

Chef Johnny Poche, co-owner of 1860 Italia, is partnering with Kenney and Abdalla, Kenney said. He added that he and Poche have been working on Le Petit Cochon’s menu for almost a year.

“We’ve spent a lot of time looking at different things,” Kenney said. “Johnny and I would go on food trips to Houston or Austin or San Antonio where there’s some French restaurants. I went to New York. I’ve been to Georgetown in Washington D.C. I’ve eaten way more French food in the last six months than I think I have in my whole life. I think dining out is a big part of entertainment, so I think you want to go out and enjoy stuff and not just eat the same thing every day.”

Menu items will feature traditional French foods as well as French cuisine with American influences, which Kenney said include Cordon blue; croque monsieur, a ham and cheese sandwich on a baked baguette; confit de canard, a seared duck leg quarter; veal cutlets; escargot; French onion soup; au format raclette, a melted cheese spread over a baguette; mussels; gumbo; and soufflé.

“We think we’ll have something for the curious and the knowledgeable about what French food is,” Kenney said.

For more information about the restaurant, visit lepetitcochon.net.

Source: Alex Miller of The Eagle