Frenchie Will Soon Get a Sister Restaurant in Cambridge

The Porter Square Hotel (1924 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge) is much closer to getting its ground floor restaurant, something it’s been waiting for since opening in 2016. Boston restaurant all-stars Loic Le Garrec and Sandrine Rossi — the duo behind South End favorite Frenchie, which was a 2017 nominee for Eater Boston’s Restaurant of the Year award — plan to open Colette sometime this November. (Le Garrec also owns Petit Robert Bistro in the South End.)

Rossi told Eater via email that it’s difficult to nail an exact opening date down because they are still dealing with the permitting process, but diners can expect a casual dining experience defined by fresh ingredients.

“The neo-bistro movement, or bistronomy, reimagines approachable dining with a pared-back dining space, relaxed service, and an abiding focus on freshness,” said Rossi.

The opening chef at Colette will be Cyrille Couet, former chef at Miel in the Intercontinental Hotel and co-owner of the now-shuttered Bistro Duet in Arlington. Rossi didn’t note what the Colette menu will look like, but Le Garrec told Cambridge Day in April that diners could get a solid understanding of what Colette will be doing by looking at the menus of its big siblings.

Frenchie serves dishes like escargot toast, steak tartare, duck magret, and cheese and charcuterie boards, while diners at Petit Robert Bistro eat dishes such as coq au vin, boeuf bourguignon, and Lyonnaise-style calf’s liver.

The restaurant is named, in part, for 20th century French novelist, mime, and journalist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1984.

Stay tuned for more details on Colette as the opening approaches.

• French Restaurant Connected to a South End Favorite Will Open in Porter Square [EBOS]
• Porter Square, Be Prepared to Meet Colette, Hotel Restaurant with Strong French Accent [CD]
• Colette [FB]