Neighborhood Hot Spot: Chloé Bistrot
Image: Anne Dixon
AT LAST, the old Union Bay Cafe space in Laurelhurst can boast an occupant worthy of that noble legacy: an honest-to-goodness French drop-in joint not unlike its sibling, Madison Valley’s Voila! Bistrot. (Those T s at the end? Alternate spelling.) Both greatest-hits menus have a lot of bistro favorites in common—a journeyman French onion soup, a fine hanger-steak frites, a few moules preparations (five at Chloé, of which the mussels with creamy wine-leek sauce surpassed expectations), a dense pot de creme. If the two diverge in atmosphere—the elder Voila! is gently classy in Dijon yellows and glossy woods; the upstart Chloé fizzier in a palette of bright red with black accents—they both manage to communicate the democratic sense of welcome and affordability that characterize authentic Parisian bistros. And bistrots.
