Happy Boy crew open a buzzy French bistro in the Valley

Chinese and French. Those are the two great cuisines of the world, according to Cameron Votan.

“They’re almost the mother cuisines of their respective regions,” he says.

“There’s a lot of debate about whether it was the Medicis who took Italian food to the courts of France or vice versa, but [it was] the French who codified their cuisine, and that trickled back into the food of Spain and Italy, and so on.”

Plenty of people would have picked Votan’s respect for Chinese food. He and brother Jordan’s Happy Boy restaurant is the beast of East Street in Fortitude Valley, with a menu that draws inspiration from all corners of China.

Snack Man, next door, does much the same with more of a wine-bar focus.

French, though? The brothers owned a French restaurant, Greenglass, which they recently closed – but, located on George Street in the CBD, it often wasn’t associated with their other venues.

Mini, a bistro the Votans opened last week on East Street next to Snack Man, is in part an initiative to bring their love of French cooking home to Fortitude Valley.

Think of Mini as a “true bistro”, Cameron says. “If you look at the origins of the word ‘bistro’, it’s a place to affordably drink and eat every day,” he says.

“That’s our aim. Some of the best meals of our lives were in these small neighbourhood bistros in Paris, where they take really humble ingredients and turn them into something fantastic. So, everything is in that bistro price range, not fine dining.”

The Votans and former Greenglass chef Aubrey Courtel have squeezed the entire Mini menu onto one A5 page broken up into starters, larger plates and desserts.

Dishes will change seasonally, but you might begin with white asparagus with a riesling sabayon, potted confit duck with whipped potato and comte cream, or baked scallops with chorizo, celeriac cream and bread crumb.

Larger plates include chicken cordon bleu; pan-fried fish in a brown butter, lemon and caper sauce; duck a l’orange; or braised Wagyu in a red wine sauce. The only plate priced at more than $50 is a chargrilled Cape Grim rib-eye. All mains come served with frites, with other sides available.

For sweets there’s a creme brulee; a selection of sorbets and ice creams; chocolate many ways (dark chocolate sorbet, cocoa crumble, chocolate tuile, namelaka, chocolate sponge) with spiced pear compote; and a nut, praline and chocolate cookie.

The wine list is a 20-bottle edit of mostly French small-producer offerings, with the Happy Boy and award-winning Snack Man cellars available if you want to go deep. Otherwise, there’s a short selection of beer and classic cocktails.

The restaurant itself is in the old Kid Curry space. It’s still the same modern 45-seat dining room with its top-to-toe spotted-gum treatment, slick lighting and open kitchen, although the Votans are also using a seating area out the front to serve snacks and small plates.

“We’d love for this to be a beautiful neighbourhood bistro,” Cameron says. “The aim is to welcome people Tuesday to Saturday, and have locals coming multiple times a week.”

Mini also has a secondary purpose, acting as a preview for another French eatery, Petite, which will open on the corner of Ann and East streets early next year.

The Votans have knocked down a wall between two tenancies on the Ann Street side and finished installing a large mezzanine. The work will make room for a 110-seat wine-bar style venue that serves a full menu of elevated small plates.

“Mini is a great snapshot of what Petite will be, but with a much smaller and concise menu,” Cameron says. “We’ll need six or seven chefs to be able to launch Petite in January. That’s not something you just click your fingers and do.

“So [it’s about] having this runway from now where we’re perfecting dishes and the chefs are getting used to the way we work down here as well. And I think it makes a lot of sense to start introducing people to us as being providers of great French food.”

Open Tue-Sat 5.30pm-9.30pm.

East Street, Fortitude Valley, 0413 246 890.

minibistro.com.au

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