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With the opening of Le Parisien restaurant, chef/owner Gabriel Attala introduces a menu rooted
in refined, classic French technique, an aesthetic transformation of local favorite Le Bouchon,
and a new-to-Asheville term for his concept – bistronomique.
The word doesn’t flow as beautifully when translated from français to anglais — bistronomic –
but either way, the culinary trend has gained popularity in France in recent years. It is simply a
fusion of bistro cuisine – which leans into comfort food, and elevated French gastronomy,
practiced in fine dining restaurants.
Attalla calls it ‘bistro fine dining.’ “The mix of French gastronomy fine cuisine as cooked in
France and bistro food gives me room to be creative.”
Le Parisien also brings him back to his roots. Three years ago, after moving from Florida to
Brevard with his wife, he opened The Bohemian Restaurant on Main Street. That menu hops
around the globe, with dishes from the UK, France, Italy, Egypt, Greece, India, Germany and
Thailand. “Brevard is a smaller town than Asheville and there are fewer restaurants so you can’t
be too niche-y,” he explains. “I had to be more eclectic, with an international menu, and serve
the best dishes from around the world in one restaurant.”
Bohemian does well, but he longed to cook again from his heart and home, and had his eye out
for a location in Asheville. A mutual friend told Attala that Michel Baudouin, the owner for 20+
years of Bouchon was in the market to sell and focus on his other enterprise RendezVous. The
two French men spoke and came to an agreement; Attala got the keys to 62 N. Lexington
Avenue in July 2025.
“We changed and remodeled everything,” he says. “The only thing that is the same is the bar on
the first floor. We re-did everything from the ceiling to the floors, the walls, the lighting and the
furnishings.”
His goal was to create two different dining experiences to accommodate as many ambiance
preferences as possible. He describes downstairs – which has nine stools at the bar, three high-
top tables and more tables in the rear of the room – as “…dark and moody, elegant and classy,
but a little more casual than the dining room upstairs.” To get there, guests ascend a
dramatically lit staircase to the second floor, which is more intimate and formal; similar, he says,
to a very high-end Parisien restaurant. It is there where the 500 bottles of wine are displayed –
85% of which are French and overseen by an in-house sommelier.
On both levels, polished wood tables gleam under the golden light of small table lamps;
paneling on the walls muffles ambient noise. He closed the formerly open kitchen, making
another decision to keep the dining room focused on dining and diners, and not the clatter of
cooking.
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On the subject of cooking, the fairly succinct menu is divided into five categories – soup, salad,
hors d’oeuvres, mains – meat and fish – and desserts. Bread service is a prologue, and
completely unique; house-made bread using flour imported from France, served with French
butter shaped into a candle with a wick that softens the butter for spreading.
Attala imports a vast amount of his product – from cheese to fish – and sources regionally from
exceptional growers and makers in Georgia, North and South Carolina. “Our prices are higher
than what some people are accustomed to here, but the French onion soup uses free range
duck for the broth and takes three days to make. The sole on our Dover Sole Meunière was
caught 18 hours before it is served and is flown overnight from Brittany to here.”
The simple endive salad is centered around a pear poached for three hours; the endive leaves
are filled with blue cheese imported from France. That classic French bistro food – steak au
poivre – is on the Le Parisien menu; the prime coulotte or prime ribeye are both ladled with
cognac green peppercorn sauce and served with duck fat fried frites dusted with herbs de
Provence and rosemary salt.
Attala says the most luxurious dish on the menu is Tournedos Rossini – prime filet mignon with
black truffle jus that has been reduced in veal stock and three wines, with a slice of foie gras
atop the beef. “It is an extremely complex composition.”
But thus far, the dinner diva is the Chilean Sea Bass Wellington; it has appeared in multiple
social media posts since making its smashing debut in February.
Attala says he is very happy to be cooking in this style, with these ingredients, and offering
Asheville this experience – their introduction to bistronomique. “We have the ambition to offer
the best, so we have to be sure to have the best product and the best staff. We want to offer an
experience no one else does in Asheville.”
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