Some moves make immediate sense. Kevin Lepage spent years as the trusted second of Stéphane Pelletier at the Broc Bar in Lyon, a place known for doing hospitality without pretence. Now he's brought that same instinct south, to the Gobuns Riviera in Saint-Tropez, where he runs the floor with the kind of ease that keeps tables happy.
The project belongs to Hugo Robert, a Breton entrepreneur who built Gobuns from a base in Pléneuf-Val-André, then Paris, before landing here. In the kitchen, chef Dimitri works with whatever is fresh: house-made buns, sharing boards, salads, truffle croque-monsieurs, pain perdu, fish, shellfish. Nothing overwrought. Just solid, generous cooking, which in high season counts for more than it sounds.
But the real draw is the terrace. Part of it opens directly onto la Ponche beach, that small strip of sand tucked between the old fishermen's quarter and the ochre walls of the village. On a good day, with the ponant blowing in off the water, there are worse places to be. The crowd is a typically Tropezian mix: regulars, visitors, the occasional familiar face slipping by unannounced.
Lyon has arrived at la Ponche. The summer will tell us the rest.
