La Roux Bistro working out the kinks with week of soft openings

La Roux Bistro, the latest international C-Street offering by restaurateur Joe Gidman, is gearing up for a Monday opening with a series of soft openings this week. 

Gidman, who owns the business with two partners, Joe Hosmer and Rodrigo Cabrejos, brings his hospitality expertise to the table, with two existing C-Street restaurants, Cafe Cusco, also co-owned by Cabrejos and serving Peruvian cuisine, and Van Gogh’s Eeterie, featuring food from the Netherlands. 

But La Roux Bistro, located at 300 E. Commercial St., offers something completely different. Gidman describes it as a fusion of French cooking and New Orleans/Creole cuisine, with a touch of the Ozarks (or, as the French originally named it, Aux Arcs) for good measure. 

The restaurant has three levels: an airy street-level bar, a surprisingly light-filled space a few steps below the surface and a cellar level – with stone walls and recessed lighting – underneath it all. 

This latter room was uncovered a few years ago, when Hosmer bought the property and began renovating it. Gidman said in 2018, Hosmer’s workers made the discovery.  

“This was buried two feet underground, and nobody knew about it until we started the rehab on the restaurant,” he said. “There was a big rock over this area, and two feet of dirt, and so they started digging down to put the level above us and discovered this rock, moved it out of the way and went, ‘Oh, my God, there’s a room under there.’” 

There was a spring running through the room, Gidman said, and it has since been directed into a well that pumps the water out across the street. 

The original intent of the cavern with a curvilinear stone roof is unclear – a wine cellar? A springhouse? A root cellar? 

“Nobody knows,” said Gidman. 

A mix 
The intrigue of the basement room adds a touch of fascination to the dining experience, and that’s a reaction the owners have tried to evince throughout, from a Chappell Roan-inspired mural by Christine Riutzel on its top floor through its menu offerings. 

The menu will change, Gidman noted. For the soft opening, a French- and Cajun-inspired drinks menu included the French Kiss, with vodka, framboise liqueur, lemon juice, simple syrup and French sparkling wine, and Garden District Punch, with vodka, elderflower tonic, lemon juice, honeysuckle spirit, French sparkling wine, fresh berries, cucumber and mint. 

For the eats, Gidman promises fresh local ingredients and a mix of offerings. “Roux” (pronounced ROO) is a French word that describes the mix of fat and flour that forms the basis of most sauces, and for cooks, it’s synonymous with “mixture.” 

The concept of mixture applies also to the restaurant’s clientele, Gidman said. 

“One of the things you’ll find is that even on our dinner entrees, the portions are a good size. They’re going to be pricey, but they’re a good size,” he said. 

But, Gidman said, the restaurant also offers affordable appetizers, salads and sandwiches. 

“One of the things that we’ve been thinking about, evaluating the menu, is we want the high-end, fancy, date-night feel, but if it’s too high end and you don’t have those other options, you may only come here once or twice a year – and if you only come once or twice a year, we don’t stay current in your mind, and you don’t become regulars,” he said. 

So customers can choose a $50 steak or $30 chicken dish and be dressed to the nines. But if they want a $15 muffaletta and a beer, they can do that, too. 

“That also goes with the name, La Roux – it is a mix, you know?” he said. “Come into this atmosphere and you don’t have to break the bank, or you can live like there’s no tomorrow.” 

Chef driven 
Gidman said he wanted to keep the restaurant’s chefs, Steven Snyder and Peter Tinson, front and center. 

“We’ll never have kitchen managers that aren’t actual chefs. We do want to keep the legacy of this restaurant more chef-driven,” he said. 

La Roux also distinguishes itself by a team approach to staffing. 

“Outside of our management, all of our employees are paid the same wage here, and none of them are actually paid a tipped wage,” Gidman said. “We are doing a full tip share across the restaurant. Instead of paying half the minimum wage, we’re paying the full wage to everybody. We’re really trying to build a staff here that is focused on the hospitality industry and want to learn to work as a team as opposed to being out for themselves.” 

It's part of Gidman’s goal for his staff to provide a unique and memorable dining experience for customers. 

“I want to have the very best of the very best in this city in this restaurant,” he said. “Instead of being worried about yourself, you come into work and you’re focused on the team, you’re focused on the product, you’re focused on the brand. You’re learning to make decisions as a group. You’re caring about that table over there as much as the table that you’re taking the order of.” 

That sense is reinforced by the flow within the building, with an open kitchen and guests and staff interacting. 

“You’re so connected to all of it,” he said. “We tell people, wander around. You do not have to stay at your table. Go explore. If you eat up in the bar and you want dessert down in the vault, do it.” 

Gidman declined to disclose startup costs, but he noted the renovations to the historic C-Street building cost upwards of $3 million.