Louis Blanc is the new French kid on the block. Just around the corner, almost in loud-talking distance, is Difference, where chef and restaurateur Yoshiaki Fujimoto has had a Michelin star for several successive years.
Atsuya Shimada, chef and owner of Louis Blanc, set up shop in this genteel neighborhood in Osaka looking out over Utsubo Park in 2016. Shimada came via Paris, where he trained, and Kobe, where he first opened Louis Blanc. The restaurant takes its name from a Parisian metro station of the same name close to where Shimada lived.
The big difference with Louis Blanc, though, is that you notice it. Architecturally it's a fairly cliched mix: The front of the restaurant is wall of glass, inside it's minimalist, almost brutalist — a bare concrete box in the mold of Tadao Ando, Osaka's most famous architect. But it's a mix that works, as sunlight floods in through the glass front wall. It also helps that Louis Blanc looks inviting, as Shimada has a tiny bakery right by the door, from which you can pick up baguettes and croissants.
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