Mon Dieu! There’s another one. After our report last week about the opening of Bistro Toulouse in Mt. Pleasant and Brasserie Gigi downtown we realized there’s one more — Annie’s Bistro quietly opened in Mt. Pleasant Towne Centre in January. (For those who are keeping track at home, that makes four new French restaurants including Chez Nous that have opened in 2014.)
Annie’s, owned by Mark Manly and Carole Robert, is a transplant from Bethesda, Md. according to Bethesda magazine. Manly’s grandparents retired in Charleston, and after the couple’s daughter graduated from high school, they decided to move the restaurant to the Lowcountry.
Chef Robert is originally from Paris and does all the cooking while her husband Manly mans the front. “We are pretty much farm-to-table to the most possible way that we can. We utilize all local ingredients,” says Robert. The chef, who came to the U.S. to attend George Mason University, learned to cook from her maternal grandparents who owned a restaurant back in France. “And my Dad’s parents retired in the Loire Valley where they had a farm, so every weekend I would go there and take care of the animals growing up,” Robert adds.
At Annie’s she specializes in French country cooking. “I make cassoulet, but I don’t make it often. It takes me four days. I make things like rabbit stew — old fashioned cuisine,” she says.
Since opening, Robert says they’ve been pleasantly surprised with the clientelle. “We’ve been very popular and very humbled. People keep coming back and bringing their friends,” she says.
The restaurant is open 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch and re-opens for dinner at 6 p.m.
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