C'est La Vie

Bistro Brings French Neighborhood Faire to Magazine Street

by Ryan Sparks

UPTOWN - Sebastien Baudin wants you to know there’s a difference between a restaurant and a bistro.

More specifically, his bistro, C’est la Vie, which is enjoying some early success despite opening into the post-holiday haze a month ago. Even in New Orleans, it can be hard to fight the misapprehension of French culture by Americans, and Baudin’s current mission is convincing people that “just because it’s French doesn’t mean it’s pretentious or fancy.”

C’est la Vie serves up traditional French entrees like Saumon au Poivre Rouge and Steak Frites for dinner, and Croque Monsieur sandwiches and Quiche Lorraine at lunch. The dishes may be natural to a Frenchman, but for Baudin the effort is in simple execution, not trying to compete with the history of a dish or in re-inventing it for novelty’s sake. He believes his bistro is a true representation of an “around the corner” place in France, and he hopes that by keeping prices down people will feel more comfortable expanding their repertoire of favorite French styles. Baudin likes to put a lot of food on the plate, and believes that value can entice more enthusiastic clientele than trying to be another over-interpreted French restaurant with prices that seem to have gone through their own currency exhange.

Baudin hails from Annecy, a town in the Rhones-Alpes region of France near the border of Austria and Italy and grew up in restaurants owned by his grandfather. At the age of 18 he took over one of the family restaurants, but eventually left to venture out on his own. He worked in restaurants in the ski resort towns nearby and eventually decided to come to America, ultimately ending up in New Orleans, where he met his wife, Yating Hsieh, who also spent a lot of time working with her parents in the restaurant business.

“I’m not good at working for someone else,” he says, “and working for your family, that can be impossible.”

It’s obvious Baudin likes doing things his own way, but he’s not an arrogant imported cliché. His stubbornness is a characteristic that’s helped him weather the tenuous position that immigrants can find themselves in.

In the uncertain years after Katrina, Baudin found plenty of work that took advantage of his non-cooking skills renovating homes. He and Hsieh considered moving somewhere more fast-paced, but ended up doubling down and decided to open their own business. Baudin did a full gut of a former clothing store himself, which took about four months. The quest for a liquor license has gone on quite a bit longer than expected, though, despite his desire to make sure everything is up to code. Even though it has been frustrating at times, Baudin remains enthusiastic about offering an almost completely French wine list at reasonable prices. Until the city council deigns to process his requests, C’est la Vie has been running BYOB and handing out Stacey Head’s contact information.

“All the things I complain about New Orleans—it’s too hot, it’s a slow pace—they are the same things we love," Baudin says. "I don’t even want to say it’s love and hate. I guess that is a typical French thing, always finding something to complain about.”

That C’est la Vie is already gaining ground in a highly competitive market on Magazine Street perhaps speaks to a latent desire that New Orleans citizens have been craving a neighborhood-style French bistro where dishes that routinely come and go as specials in other restaurants have a permanent place and every table around you isn’t celebrating an anniversary, birthday, or graduation.

C’est la Vie Bistro is at 4206 Magazine and is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Saturday, and brunch and dinner Sunday.

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Contributors:

Arielle Schecter, Laura Cayouette, Laine Kaplan-Levenson, Tristan Bennett, Rachel Dainer-Best, Christopher Herbeck, Kermit M. Mudgeley, Stella Kowalski, Huey P. Long, Hallie Gerard, Mack Walters, Paul McRambles, Erik Carter, Christina LeBlanc, Michael Cohn-Geltner, Jocelyn Buckley, Dave Rosenberg, Tanya Gulliver, Alexander J. Hancock

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C'est La Vie

Bistro Brings French Neighborhood Faire to Magazine Street

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