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Just down from the Soulard market is Franco Bistro and Wine Bar. Without knowing the restaurant’s location within the Soulard Loft Apartment building, you may not find it. But if you do, you’ll never forget it.

Grandma Diva is still the attention-getter and utilizing a walker due to her broken pelvis. It’s a good thing she brought the walker and not the wheelchair. Franco is not easily handicapped accessible. Grandma Diva hopped up the handful of stairs to get into the restaurant.

Typically we enjoy privacy and quiet so we can clearly hear the conversations at our table, but this time we were placed in our own room away from the actual dining area, and we felt like we missed out. The dining area had a very cool vibe to it that we would have liked to have been a part of.

On a typical Dining Divas evening, it takes us a good 20 to 30 minutes before we irritate or offend our waiter. But this month, we weren’t seated for 30 seconds, and he was already on the defensive. Fortunately, we gave him a little rendition of “Luckenbach, Texas,” and he was in love.

To our delight, Grandma Diva shared her progression she has made since the last time we met. She has ventured out to the grocery store (once) and plans to walk into the next Diva restaurant. Greek Diva revealed that Grandma Diva may have went to the grocery store, but she hasn’t stepped foot in the kitchen in eight weeks, or brought out the trash, or brought in the mail. Yet we’ve learned that the walker is quite the male magnet. Grandma continues to flourish on the dating scene, much to the chagrin of many of the single Divas with fully functioning pelvises.

The bartender mixed up some incredible martinis. The Newlywed Diva loved the lemon drop martini, and even though it wasn’t the proper recipe that the bartender typically used, it was super.

We were treated with the most delicious biscuits prior to our salads and meals. We loved them. If I were to return, I’d probably order a smaller meal, maybe just soup and salad because the biscuits were that good. On top of that, some at the table enjoyed flatbread with tapenade (black olives and olive oil), Roquefort cheese spread and the eggplant (ratatouille) spread. The Italian Diva preferred the tapenade over the others.

For soup, St. Louis Bread Company’s black bean is tops, but Franco’s had a kick to it that definitely gives Bread Co. some competition. And when you go to a French restaurant, you have to try their French onion soup. It too was very delicious.

For the main course, the pork rib chop was grilled to perfection with a Dijon mustard sauce. The impeccable seasoning was so good that the chop could have been enjoyed without the sauce. It was served with a potato gratin and corn, sweet corn cut off the cob and seasoned with red peppers. The wild salmon with cream corn and spinach was also incredible. Everyone enjoyed their meals; however, we all agreed. We ate too much before the main course that we really couldn’t enjoy it.

Franco is definitely a place we’d return to. Most items on the menu were provided from local merchants. The menu changes constantly, and even though the menu is limited, the Picky Diva even had lots to choose from. Aside from the basic handicap accessibility, a cranky waiter, and a 20% tip automatically added to our bill, Franco is a great place to eat, drink, and be merry, and not to be missed.

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