Now, sales manager Justin Molis can never decide on just one dish in his neighborhood
bistro.
The warm French baguettes sets the tone for the abundance of classic French dishes ahead,
and you'll never wanna say au revoir.
He is sure the flavors will exceed your expectations, and the quaint atmosphere makes it perfect
for a special date night.
It's in North Miami, and it's called Petit Rouge.
Petit Rouge is a small neighborhood French bistro.
We do all the classic bistro stuff, but I'm American, so we bring some American things
into it.
We buy the best product available, and then it's about simplicity and technique that really
winds up on the plate.
Well, once you walk in, you're transported, you're really in a Parisian French bistro
in a little neighborhood in Paris, basically drinking wine and having a good time.
I've got David and Carlos in the front, Daniel in the kitchen, who's my righthand man, the
backbone of the restaurant.
Everybody works together in a really incredible, I mean it's like a small close knit family
with the success of it, it's about the people, I mean you could build the Taj Mahal, but
if you don't have the people, then it's not gonna succeed.
We have all the classics, we do a duck rillette, escargot, of course.
We serve them out of the shell because I use a special butter from Vermont, it's a cultured
butter, so you're really tasting that garlic butter.
I always wanted to be a chef from the time I was a little kid.
It's very rewarding, seeing people leave happy and coming back again and again.
Petit Rouge is a simple French classis bistro with just simple, great food.
How did you find Petit Rouge?
Well, I've actually known the chef.
This is his second restaurant that he's had.
I've been following him around for probably about, oh, 10 to 12 years, from Italian before,
and now doing really classic French, and when it first opened, we went there a couple times,
and then it sort of became I guess you could say like a special occasion spot, even though
the prices are very reasonable.
For what it is.
For what it is, yeah.
I mean, just absolutely what I would consider authentically cooked French food in Miami
at an affordable price, not pretentious.
And cooked by an American.
Yeah, 100%.
You'd never believe it, right?
Oh, absolutely, I mean the escargot is exactly what you want when you go in, that garlicky
butter with the fresh herbs, and then the best sweetbreads I've ever had.
They were just so creamy in this butter caper sauce, and so golden brown.
I'd never had his sweetbreads before, and we saw them on the menu.
You know, not everybody knows what sweetbreads are.
Do you wanna tell them, or you want me to tell them?
As a chef, I wish you would, but I always think of it as the glands inside of a cow
that are either around the throat or the heart, correct?
It is the thymus gland of the veal.
[Justin] The best part is you get all this warm, crusty bread.
Right.
[Justin] So, you get all the sauce, not for even just from the escargot, but now from
this butter caper sauce.
Did you have anything else?
[Justin] Yeah, we ended up going to the duck rillette afterwards, which is great, so always
love duck fat cooked with that shredded duck meat, and nice, perfectly toasted pieces of
bread to go with it, and it was excellent.
Nice.
And then, it was a special occasion for me.
I was celebrating a birthday, so chef sent us out these profiteroles with vanilla ice
cream, drizzled in all kinds of sauce, and he was so cordial, and the servers were so
nice, put the little candle in it, the whole thing, and then sent us out two other desserts
on top also, like a chocolate lava cake type style that's slow cooked chocolate on the
inside, drizzled with a bunch of fraiche creme.
[Michelle] You did well that night.
It was a nice night, yeah.
We had a good time, for sure.
George?
I loved it, and I'm very grateful that you introduced me to that restaurant because this
is the kind of food that I love.
We had the steak tartar.
Ah, nice.
[George] Whenever there is steak tartar, I need to have it.
[Michelle] Oh my god, I'm with you.
One of my favorite thing.
[George] This one was excellent, and it was with capers, with onions.
[Michelle] Did you get a cone of fries?
[George] Yes.
Too much.
[Elaine] That cone of fries.
[George] The fries were really good.
Great.
[George] As an appetizer, we had the French onion soup.
[Michelle] Was it oozing with cheese?
Lots of onions and bread?
Lots of onions, the deep dark color of the onion soup, so it was not made an hour ago,
it was made probably two or three days ago, and that's how onion soup should be.
I love onion soup, and whenever I have a chance to get it, I'll take it.
And, we ended with a chocolate mousse, and what I have with onion soup, my wife has with
chocolate mousse.
When it's on the menu, she needs to have it.
It was really good, yeah.
That's great.
How was your experience, Elaine?
I went with my mom.
We did a little Miami trip, and so we went down and went inside, we sat down, the only
people there.
They were very attentive, very nice, and we started ordering, and my mother ordered lentil
soup and escargot.
That was her two things she really wanted.
We got a bottle of wine, and I ordered the pompano fish, the special of the day with
the brown butter, lemon, almonds, and green beans.
Really wonderful, it was nice, it was very good, and the escargot came first.
Well, after that awesome bread.
I mean that bread is dreamy.
Yeah, that is true.
It's so good.
It is good.
[Elaine] And then, the escargot came, and it's in this sauce, and the sauce is one of
those things where you take that bread and you dip it in, and you eat that, and you're
loving it, and that was what I really enjoyed.
[Michelle] Really green, right?
[Elaine] Oh, it was so bright and vibrant, but the thing that shocked me the most was
that lentil soup.
[Michelle] Why, was it good, or not?
[Elaine] So good, it was like firecrackers in my mouth.
It was so yummy.
You have to try this lentil soup, it was the bomb.
I don't know if I have a better soup out there.
Really?
I thought this was literally the best soup I'd have.
I could not get more than one spoonful out of my mom.
I didn't even know he had lentil soup.
No, no, two soups to go try at the next visit to Petit Rouge.
Yes, it was fantastic, and then we finished off with I think it's called the chocolate
pot.
[Michelle] Okay.
[Elaine] And, it was just like a chocolate mousse, that was fantastic.
Good lord.
It was a really wonderful night.
Now, you can take your wine for a corkage fee, your own wine there, but they have quite
a nice wine list.
Excellent wine choice.
Yeah, it's reasonable.
We had rose.
Oh, lovely.
We love rose, good Provence.
It was excellent.
[Elaine] I miss rose.
[George] I mean you really felt, you tasted the Provence in there, and since it was a
French restaurant, I think, well, let's go for the rose.
Well, Justin, Petit Rouge was your choice.
Please sum it up for me.
Great French cooking in a nice neighborhood bistro style restaurant in the heart of Miami.
George.
Excellent food, fantastic service, the people are very friendly there.
We'll go back.
Elaine?
This is one of those great restaurants that you have to make a reservation because we
were first, but then it filled up, very much so.
I do wish they would put a menu online, so I can dream about my next meal.
Oh, that's nice.
For a trip to France without the price tag, visit Petit Rouge, located at 12409 Biscayne
Boulevard in North Miami.
Open Monday through Saturday for dinner.
Reservations are accepted, and the average price for dinner without drinks is about 75
dollars.