The French brasserie La Grange aims to be the Parc of Bucks County, bubblegum cocktail notwithstanding

The timing could not have been better for chef Peter Woolsey. Burned out after more than 15 years as a restaurateur — with three French restaurants at one point — he closed his last one, the well-regarded Bistrot La Minette in Queen Village, last summer.

Woolsey said he loved cooking and running a kitchen, but could do without the ownership headaches. The pandemic-induced closings of his offshoots La Peg and Gabi drained him.

Less than a year later, Woolsey is back — not as an owner but as executive chef of La Grange, the sprawling 220-seat brasserie that opened earlier this month in the new Prickett Preserve development, five minutes off I-295 in Yardley, Bucks County. It’s built around a 200-year-old restored stone barn (“la grange,” literally) and features a fireplace, two bars, a full raw bar, a 20-seat mezzanine, and outdoor seating on a terrace and patio.

Woolsey had, at most, seven people working in La Minette’s kitchen. He now oversees a kitchen team of 40, putting out 350 lunches and dinners a day as management throttles reservations so they can get their bearings. Even so, he said, “my stress level is so much less than it ever was.”

La Grange’s owners are father-and-son Vincent and Marc Masso of Newtown’s La Stalla (coincidentally, Italian for “barn”) and Michael Geonnotti, a partner in Titan Food Service Solutions, which builds restaurants. They see La Grange (say it the French way, “la GRAHNJE”) as a suburban rendition of the Rittenhouse Square favorite Parc, with Gallic style and local appeal. The complimentary valet parking is a plus.

Geonnotti and Vincent Masso said the project, several years in the making, initially was to be a steakhouse called La Stalla Prime. Geonnotti visited France for his daughter’s wedding and fell in love with bistros. When a consultant sent Woolsey their way, Geonnotti said, his daughter piped up that La Minette was her favorite restaurant.

“This is the project I always wanted to do,” Woolsey said. “I did the French bistro thing [at La Minette] and I did a little French cafe over at Gabi [on North Broad Street], and it’s nice to go full brasserie,” he said. La Peg, at the FringeArts in Old City from 2014 to 2020, probably was the closest to that, though the menu was more limited.

“A French brasserie is analogous to an American diner in the sense that they’re everywhere and you have a general idea of what’s on the menu before you ever go to one,” said Woolsey, 47, who early in his career cooked at Lucas Carton in Paris, where he met and married his wife, Peggy, a native of Dijon. Woolsey then worked for Georges Perrier at Le Mas in Wayne and Stephen Starr at Striped Bass and Washington Square before La Minette’s opening in 2008.

So far, Woolsey said, La Grange’s best sellers are the classics: onion soup, escargots, coq au vin, salmon en croute. There are two steak frites — an 8-ounce culotte and a 14-ounce ribeye.

Woolsey has brought his kitchen crew back together. Executive sous chef Grant Lloyd previously was chef at the Morris House. Kevin Murda and Lai Lam were also sous chefs at La Minette, and chef de cuisine Sabrina Santamaria Limon started working with Woolsey at Striped Bass 20 years ago and followed him to Washington Square and La Minette.

Closing time is 9 p.m. during the week but 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. “We’re following the same rules I always use, which is, if you walk in the door, even at the end, you get the full experience,” Woolsey said. “No one’s going to say, ‘The kitchen’s closing.’ I hate that.”

Running the beverage program is Danielle “Weezy” Messina, last at La Stalla, who oversees a deep, mostly French wine list; a beer list including two Kronenbourgs on draft and a double-hopped IPA in collaboration with Warwick Farm Brewing; and a cocktail list of classics as well as her own stuff. “She’s a bit of an evil genius,” Woolsey said.

“I don’t want people to come in and just get a drink and be like, ‘Oh, yeah. That was fine,’” Messina said. “We’re making a huge commitment to high quality and fun.”

Messina’s house old-fashioned bears the name Duck à La Grange. She renders duck fat and adds Chinese five-spice powder, then she mixes it with Maker’s Mark bourbon. That goes into the freezer, and a day later, the solid fat pops off. “What’s left is a really velvety, ducky, spicy bourbon,” she said. It’s mixed with her own Bordeaux bitters and Grand Marnier.

Messina’s idea of fun is her cocktail called La Bulle — “the bubble” — one of those silly, showy, suburbanish martinis that envelop smoke inside an oversize bubble. The drink is a mix of Grey Goose, Lillet rosé, fresh grapefruit juice, and a simple syrup made of Dubble Bubble gum.

“Don’t freak out,” she said, laughing. “I balance the bitter grapefruit against the sweetness, so it really isn’t as sweet as you think it is.” It’s not, and it’s served with a bubblegum lollipop whose stick you can use to pop the bubble. “We want to get people talking,” she said.

La Grange, 915 Antique Alley, Yardley. Lunch: 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday. Dinner: 4 to 9 p.m. Monday to Wednesday, 4 to 10 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, and 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday. Brunch: 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Midday menu: 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Happy hour: 4 to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday. Wheelchair accessible.