Step into Les Faux Bourgeois, with its sleek mahogany paneling, charming French wait staff and joie de vivre ambiance, and you’d think you’d been transported to a bistro off Les Champs Elysées. But look across the street to the small park and you’ll remember you’re in Mount Pleasant’s Fraser and 15th triangle, an area ‘Fauxbo’ helped put on the map when Stephan Gagnon and Andreas Seppelt opened it in 2008. “We realized on the Eastside, aside from neighbourhood pubs and excellent Asian cuisine, there was no place to go out and get French food and a glass of wine,” says Andreas.
But it’s not just Mount Pleasant locals who flock here for a plate of Boudin Noir and what are known as the best steak frites in the city (just try getting a table without a reservation). People come from all over the lower mainland for their Fauxbo fix. What draws them, along with the excellent French comfort food, is the unpretentious vibe, so different from the white linen service of most French restaurants in Vancouver. “The idea was to create a bistro that was truly a bistro in the traditional sense like you’d find in Montreal or France – noisy, utilitarian, reasonably priced,” says Andreas.
