3 Authentic French Places in Nashville

“There are preconceived notions about every kind of food,” says Elodie Habert, owner of Cocorico cuisine. ““What is sometimes annoying is when people open a French authentic whatever, and they label it that and so the pricing is really high because it is French so it should be fancy which is not true. And plus, when we French people go there, we are just disappointed because this is not how we do things- this is not the taste and the flavor and the ingredients. In France there are not a lot of fancy restaurants – we have a lot of bistros; we have a lot of bakeries, and this is where we eat on a daily basis. We don’t go to a fancy restaurant every day - this is just not sustainable and doesn’t make sense for us. …You don’t need to pay a lot of money to taste the French culture and the authenticity.”

Habert arrived in Nashville from Nantes, France 5 years ago when her husband received a job transfer. In 2018, she started Cocorico Cuisine as a side-hustle with a friend. But after only a few months the friend moved out of the country, so Elodie took on Cocorico as her full-time business. Her baguettes, sandwiches, quiches, and famous salted butter caramel, as well as soups and seasonal meals often sell out at farmers markets around town, as do her French chocolate cakes and madeleines. She delivers her goodies (with her infectious positive attitude) to select grocery stores, offers beautiful catering options, and provides baguettes and chocolate fondant cakes to area restaurants such as Once Upon A Time In France (OUATF).

Laurent Champonnois and son, Melvil Arnt opened OUATF in late 2019 after seeing a need for a true French bistro. Melvil, born and raised in Paris, was a musician and sound engineer who owned a recording studio in France (coincidentally called Tennessee studio) who dreamed of one day opening his own wine bar. Father, Laurent, born in Lyon, owned a vintage guitar shop, and was a TV director for 35 years, but his passion for timeless family recipes and his degree from culinary school kept calling. So, open a bistro they did. And it’s a true authentic experience, stepping off of Gallatin Pike and into Paris for a brief time.

“Being a foreigner, you don’t really know how people are going to react to what you propose. You’ve noticed that this building is a bit [shaky] and inside you will see that the floor is not perfect, the tables sometimes are a bit….” Laurent trails off wistfully. “But that’s part of the charm. That’s what you have in bistros.”

Laurent and his family (his ex-wife runs the front of house and his son’s girlfriend tends bar) have been completely transparent about the intent and genuineness of their establishment from the jump. Their place is small, and they don’t take reservations.

“I don’t think with my kind of cooking and this type of establishment reservations are worth it for me. Because as you see the prices are quite affordable. If you want to make a reservation, we’re going to have to double the prices and we don’t want to have to do that. Since the beginning, we always have tried to have low prices because some people don’t have so much money. French food is always associated with high end restaurants or fine dining, but bistros are affordable. This is for the working class – this is where people go to have just a meal, one meat or one fish. So, we wanted to keep that spirit.” Indeed, in true bistro fashion, they serve steak frites, boeuf bourguignon, and confit de canard (duck confit) with escargot (using true French snails) and paté to start and the most heavenly crème brûlée to finish.

And Laurent is determined above all else to maintain the integrity of each and every plate he serves. “The other day a customer said to me, ‘I’ve tried so many French restaurants in America, but they always want to adapt to American culture and tradition.’ And I don’t want to do that. My recipes, like the bourguignon recipe, go back to the 19^th century – the Middle Ages – I don’t want to change or to adapt. And I think I was right to do that. My son and I think there is a need in general for authenticity.”

Today, Nashville is getting closer to having just about every kind of cuisine imaginable. And according to Milliner, “French food is [just like] anything… it’s always best when it’s done by people from the country. Go to an Italian restaurant which is done by a real Italian rather than an American trying to do Italian food… or when it’s Sean Brock doing his Appalachian cooking and you know he’s totally legit because that’s his thing and so we trust him. When you want to eat something French, why not have it done by the French to be sure that you have the actual taste of it?”

Santé. We’ll drink to that.

Little Gourmand                                            Cocorico                                            Once Upon A Time In France
Berry Hill                                                        Multiple Locations                          East Nashville
@littlegourmand                                           @cocorico.nash                                @onceuponatimeinfrance