What’s on the menu at Lucie, the Financial District’s new spot for fancy French food

Name: Lucie Contact: 100 Yonge St, 416-788-9054, restaurantlucie.com, @restaurantlucie
Neighbourhood: Financial District Owner: Yannick Bigourdan Chefs: Arnaud Bloquel, Zachary Barnes, Julie Guenat and Laurence Delmas Farré Accessibility: Fully accessible   After opening around a dozen restaurants over the past two decades, Yannick Bigourdan was ready to get back into the fine-dining game. Some of his recent restaurants—the Carbon Bar, Amano Trattoria—focus on casual fare, but Lucie is Bigourdan’s first high-end venture since he sold Splendido in 2009. It’s also his first French restaurant—which may come as a surprise considering that Bigourdan grew up in southern France.

“I never really wanted to do French because, to be honest, I think I always had the feeling that I had escaped France,” says Bigourdan, who moved to Canada in 1998. “But I always go to French restaurants because I love them, and now that I’m about to turn 50, I guess I’m more inclined to go back to my roots.”

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Lucie is named after Bigourdan’s grandmother, with whom he had a close relationship when he was a child. Although the restaurant’s connection to Bigourdan’s heritage carries a sense of nostalgia, the menu is distinctly modern. “I’m passionate about modern French food,” he says. “I wanted to do something that wasn’t your expected bistro with duck confit.”

The restaurant’s menu pushes boundaries, but the inviting ambiance carries the warmth of Bigourdan’s personal passion for the project. “Fine dining is in my DNA—this is what I love,” he says. “I think it’s what I do best.”

The food

Bigourdan’s vision was for Lucie to represent “the cooking that’s happening in Paris right now.” In order to achieve this, he went straight to the source, recruiting a number of the restaurant’s chefs directly from France. There are seven French nationals working behind the pass at Lucie, led by executive chef Arnaud Bloquel, who trained with Michelin-recognized chef Christian Constant and also made it to the semi-finals of last year’s Meilleur Ouvrier de France competition.

Lucie’s current dinner menu is a three-course prix fixe, with a choice of appetizer, main and dessert ($130 per person). Lunch, which will launch in mid-August, will offer à la carte options.

The drinks

This is the kind of place with a champagne trolley, which is stocked with three rotating feature sparkling wines. It’s rolled up to every newly seated table as an invitation for diners to start their evening with a glass of bubbly.

Unsurprisingly, the wine list is about 75 per cent French, covering a mix of smaller producers and staple standbys. It spans a little over 100 labels, but Bigourdan hopes to expand that to over 400 in the coming months. Cocktails riff on the classics by incorporating French tipples like chartreuse and Armagnac. “We try to give them a French touch and create interesting flavours using traditional French ingredients,” Bigourdan says.

The space

Rich burgundy and royal-blue tones give the 70-seat dining room an elegant feel while exposed concrete pillars add a contemporary, industrial element. “We’re pushing the envelope on the food, but I wanted to have a dining room that was warm, not intimidating,” says Bigourdan.

Bigourdan sees the 20-seat marble bar as the heart of the restaurant. “When my wife and I go to a restaurant, we always sit at the bar,” he says. “I just love the dynamic—you’re a little bit higher, you see more of what’s going on, and there’s always somebody in front of you to converse with.”

References to famous French figures are peppered throughout the artwork on the walls. Bigourdan wanted to display pieces that would look visually interesting for the average diner while also serving as playful Easter eggs for the restaurant’s French customers. “We want to put the French culture out there but without being pompous—or too French,” he says.