Philadelphia Restaurant Guide

Patou is a food lover's dream as much as it is the heart's desire of anyone visiting Old City for sophisticated nightlife. Chef Patrice Rames, a native of St. Tropez, and the man who gave Philadelphia Bistro St. Tropez nearly 20 years ago, knows how to create fabulous French food and an ambiance within which to savor it.

With Patou, his second venture established 2004, Rames pays tribute to his home, the French Riviera, and his beloved mother and aunt — who called him “Patou� when he was a boy - and serves up European style and nightlife in his adopted city, Philadelphia. Patou is the sultry, slightly wild, younger sibling of Bistro St. Tropez. Patou's 6,000 square-foot expanse captures the essence and style of the Riviera with its sweeping bar, dramatic lighting, soaring sky-lit ceilings, center-stage gleaming open kitchen, massive abstract expressionist paintings and turn of the century French photographs by internationally recognized artists, and private dining galleries for intimate affairs.

Patou's menu, influenced by the cuisines of the French Riviera and neighboring Mediterranean and North African regions, is generally seasonal, is modified daily, and utilizes the freshest ingredients and spices in presentation of its “French-with-adventure� selections.

Chef Rames' background includes study at L'Ecole Hotelière de Nice, and positions within premier professional kitchens of Bordeaux, the South of France, Paris, London, Chicago and Houston. Chef Rames came to Philadelphia in the mid-eighties and in 1987 opened Bistro St. Tropez, a stylish Zagat top-rated French bistro tucked away among Philadelphia's premier interior design showrooms on the fourth floor of the Marketplace Design Center at 2400 Market Street.