With its towering hot pink wall outside, Attagirl announced itself even before you stepped inside the Logan Square restaurant. Opened in November 2023, Attagirl was the brainchild of Bunny (the former chef and owner of Café Marie-Jeanne; the industry darling closed in November 2020), and Matt Sussman, owner of Table, Donkey and Stick. While attempting to forge its own identity, Attagirl still tapped into the spirit of the beloved CMJ, both on the menu and with the atmosphere.
But as Bunny exited Attagirl in mid-December, (for a myriad of reasons including the stress that came with returning to work for a restaurant) Sussman chose a new direction with changes, including a new color scheme. Bar Parisette will officially debut on Friday, June 28. Sussman, along with head chef, Madalyn Durrant (Webster’s Wine Bar) and GM Diana Benanti, are leaning into French cuisine.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25506050/20240623_L1030733.jpg "Table, Donkey and Stick Owner Leans Into French Cuisine With New Restaurant (1)")
“While I initially hired Madalyn and Diana to take over Attagirl with conversations that started in February, we decided together that our project to relaunch the menu and reimagine the space deserved its own identity, especially given that the previous concept was largely conceived by a person no longer connected to the restaurant,” says Sussman.
The group’s decision was to create a French bistro but one that wasn’t restrained by preconceived notions of what that style of restaurant could be.
“We want to move outside the mother sauces, sausages, cream, and butter and acknowledge what else is produced and cooked in France, which is a lot of seafood and vegetables,” Durrant says. “Bistro cuisine can be so much prettier, lighter, and vegetable-forward than what many folks are familiar with.”
On the menu that means roasted mushrooms with pistou, an olive oil-based sauce similar to pesto. At Bar Parisette, the pistou will be made without cheese and nuts and the mushrooms will be cooked with a vegetable-based demi-glace. “That will allow us to utilize a lot more of our vegetable scraps than we would be able to in another context,” says Durrant.
For her version of vol au vent, Durrant pairs the delicate puff pastry with a summery white fish chowder. “It’s something that’s a little Midwest and kind of reminiscent of soup in a bread bowl, but still classically French in technique and execution,” she says.
The brunch menu includes a croque madame sandwich, a French omelet with herbs, and pain perdu (French toast topped with cardamon crème anglaise and strawberry rhubarb compote).
Like at Attagirl, cured meats made at Table, Donkey and Stick will be utilized. The cured and smoked fish program — think hot smoked rainbow trout, whitefish rillettes, and cold-smoked salmon — will continue at Bar Parisette. Oysters will also be part of Bar Parisette, including offering specially priced bivalves at happy hour.
Bar Paristte reimagines several Attagril fan favorites, including the frites dishes (mussels, steak, and duck), cheeseburger, and veggie burger: “Nothing is staying from the Attagirl menu as far as recipes or presentations, mostly because those belong to somebody else,” says Durrant.
On the co*cktail side, Bar Parisette will tap into the French bistro concept, says Benanti. That means rotating three different classic co*cktails a day as well as having a specially priced drink at happy hour. “We’re conscious of how the economy is making it hard for people to come out and see us,” says Benanti. “We want to make that easier.”
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Like with the food, Benanti is taking a seasonal approach to Bar Parisette’s co*cktails. Look for a housemade strawberry top-infused gin paired with a bergamot liqueur and lemon for a patio crusher-type co*cktail. Fans of Attagirl’s Smoky Martini will be happy to know it remains, although it’s been renamed as the Cigarette Pants Martini.
While Durrant wasn’t looking to make a change, the Bar Parisette offer was one she couldn’t pass up. “It checked a lot of my boxes as far as what I want to do next in my career, which is to be able to focus in on something I really love being French food and wine,” she says.
For Sussman, who is the restaurant’s sommelier, Durrant’s passion for wine was important. “I am excited to work with someone who values the role of wine in a meal and how food and wine enhance and interact with each other in fascinating and delicious ways,” he says.
For Bar Parisette’s wine program, Sussman will dig deeper than at Attagirl yet continue to offer a list that’s expansive and super accessible price-wise from winemakers with a vision. “As a wine drinker and lover, I want people to have the opportunity to purchase wines I think are important or delicious,” he says. French regions, varietals, and domestic wines that speak to those styles will be a focus. By association, natural wines will also be represented.
A new addition at Bar Parisette will be a red and white wine cooler behind the host stand, offering a grab-and-go experience. Sussman says the 50 or so selections will change often and will inevitably include awesome wines his distributors have available in limited quantities. “It’s fun to read a list and talk to a sommelier but there’s something special about the experience of seeing and touching bottles and finding something unexpected,” he says.
There have been design changes at Bar Parisette beyond changing the bright pink wall to French blue, terracotta, and white. Those colors are referenced inside the restaurant too. Gone are the high-tops previously at Attagirl, with bistro-style marble-topped tables replacing them. The once-raised banquettes along the wall have been lowered to normal height. Brass pendant lighting hangs over the bar. “Everything feels a little quieter, warmer, and sexier,” says Sussman.
For Durrant, not having worked at Attagirl, maintaining the restaurant’s focus on being a neighborhood spot is crucial. “Bar Parisette needs to be accessible in both a comfort level thing and price level thing,” she says. I don’t ever want to work anywhere in my career that my staff can’t afford to eat at.”
Bar Parisette, 2828 W. Armitage Avenue, opening Friday, June 28, reservations via Resy
