About Us
With tightly packed tables and classic bistro fare, Petite Chou Bistro and Champagne Bar is Patachou's reinvention of the iconic French neighborhood restaurant. Founded in 2007, Petite Chou has received numerous accolades, from multiple appearances on Indianapolis Monthly's yearly "Best Restaurants" lists to Travel + Leisures list of "Best French Restaurants in the US". Daily breakfast and lunch available first come, first served. Dinner reservations available Wednesday-Saturday.
A Founder's Story
Martha Hoover founded a successful collection of restaurants in Indianapolis, Indiana—Cafés Patachou, Petite Chou Bistro & Champagne Bar, and Napolese Pizzeria. Founded in 1989, Hoover used premium ingredients, prepared from scratch, and partnered with local vendors and farmers—years before the phrase “farm to table” was first uttered.
In 2020, Hoover was nominated for Restaurateur of the Year by the James Beard Foundation for the sixth time; Food and Wine named her “One of The Most Innovative Women in Food and drink”, Eater named her “Empire Builder of the Year”, Vogue Magazine profiled her and the company for their sustainability practices, and InStyle Magazine named her to their list of “50 Badass Women”. Additionally, Café Patachou was named one of Restaurant Hospitality’s Top 25 Coolest Concepts, and Won't Stop Inc. was named among “19 great restaurants in the US to work for” by Food and Wine.
In 2013, Martha Hoover founded A Longer Table (formerly The Patachou Foundation) with one clear goal: ensure more children in Indianapolis had access to fresh, nourishing food. Over the past decade, that goal has grown into a citywide effort to reimagine school food and invest in youth leadership. The organization has now served more than one million scratch-made meals, launched Next Course Cafeterias to help schools transform how they serve food, and created the Food Fellowship, a paid career training program that prepares high school students for the food system of tomorrow.