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Also this issue: Good, and That's Enough |
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July 25-31, 2002
food
 Photo By: Michael T. Regan |
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The French may get an occasionally deserved bad rap (anti-Semitism,
unwillingness to extradite murderers), but damn it, they gave us Serge Gainsbourg, Amélie, Yves Saint Laurent, Brigitte Bardot and Godard. Who cares if it took a while to send back Ira Einhorn? It’s not like he was going to ripen and rot.
Now, two expat Frenchmen -- Lyon students Jean-Wilfred Thibault and Raphael Perrier -- have created not only “Philadelphia’s first authentic bar Francais” by opening the surprisingly stark L’Hexagone on Sansom Street, but an entire French Quarter off the corner of Sofitel. Davio’s Northern Italian restaurant: be warned.
One high, wide storefront window surrounded by Koresh Dance types (Perrier’s girlfriend dances with Koresh) introduces L’Hexagone’s 1,500 square feet. What seems a darkly colored narrow crease of a room blossoms as you wind around the exposed-brick front bar -- past sparsely arranged authentic signage and antique posters purchased in the Paris Flea Market -- and its center column toward the back room. Dark, stark walls of pine green, midnight blue and rouge are subtle, marking the location as a minimalist marvel of design, tone and texture; a purely intentional authentic Parisienne bar, not too styled, internationally staffed, lined with French-only wine lists, charcuterie and French delicacies, and very comfortable.
After they chose colors, WoodWerks (La Colombe, Rouge) custom-built bars and furniture for the back room and L’Hexagone’s simple second-floor VIP salon.
The back room is like an attic out of mod Notre Dame, what with its red-stained glass skylight, carved marbles and low, post-Mission-period banquettes made of stained wood and black leather. The same cool vibe is carried, via a long wooden staircase, onto salon two. Here, a lit-from-below bar sits amid leather ottoman seating, brushed stainless-steel tables and black-velvet-curtained windows fronting Sansom for what is the most private VIP spot in this town to date. All that’s required for that lovingly alone French feeling is a pack of Gauloises, absinthe and a warm rainy night upstairs at L’Hexagone.
L’Hexagone, 1718 Sansom St., 215 569-4869.
