Stephan Courseau and Daniele Garcia have been building French restaurants in Dallas since 2013. They are both French. They have both been here long enough to become something else — not exactly American, not exactly the version of themselves that landed in Texas over a decade ago, but something in between. Frenchie is them trying to put that feeling on a plate.
“Frenchie is an American French restaurant made by French guys who are now in the American mainstream,” Courseau said when it opened. “It represents the version of the French people we are today.” That is the kind of thing that sounds like marketing until you eat there and realize it is just true.
The restaurant is at 8420 Preston Center Plaza, in the old Corner Bakery space that sat empty for three years after closing in 2022. Travis Street Hospitality — Courseau and Garcia’s group, which also runs Georgie and Le PasSage, along with Knox Bistro, Bilboquet and others — took it over and turned it into a 4,000-square-foot brasserie with pewter bar tops, rattan chairs, brass sconces, rounded booths, and two patios. It looks like Paris but not in the theme-park way. More like someone who actually grew up there designed a room and then moved on without overthinking it.
The culinary director is Bruno Davaillon, who many Dallas diners will remember from Bullion, the acclaimed French restaurant downtown that closed during the pandemic. A few of those recipes made it to Frenchie — the sautéed leeks and the extra cheesy gougères among them — which for anyone still mourning Bullion is reason enough to go. Day to day the kitchen is run by executive chef Reilly Brown, who came up through Georgie before taking over here.
Brunch runs Saturday and Sunday starting at 9:30 a.m. and it is the meal that best captures what Frenchie is actually trying to do. Start with the gougères — hot, airy, buried in cheese, gone in two bites. The Provençale tomato tart is the dish that has been getting the most attention since it launched, a flaky pastry base with roasted tomatoes and herbed filling that lands somewhere between a quiche and a tart and is better than either. The crêpes are made to order and come sweet or savory — the ham and gruyère version is the one worth getting before noon. The Croque Madame is the classic move — thick ham, melted cheese, béchamel, a fried egg on top, served with a side salad dressed in vinaigrette that cuts through all of it. The deviled eggs with espelette pepper are the table snack nobody puts down.
The coffee program is serious — proper espresso drinks, sourced and pulled with the same care as the food, which at an all-day brasserie makes a meaningful difference. The cocktail list includes a freezer martini that is pre-batched and pre-chilled in custom bottles, which means it arrives exactly right every time. For brunch, the French 75 is the drink — gin, lemon, sugar, champagne, cold and properly balanced. Order one before the gougères arrive and the morning is already going well.
The room is family-friendly enough that you can bring children and still feel like an adult, which is not easy to pull off and Frenchie manages it. The patio is the right call on a May morning before the heat takes over. Brunch runs Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Reservations recommended for weekend mornings. More at frenchiedallas.com and on Instagram at @frenchieprestoncenter.
