Thierry looking for a new place to hang his hat

The end has finally come for Rover's. Announced months ago, postponed a couple of times, it's finally dunzo: Thierry Rautureau has seared his last foie gras, poached his last poire, poured his last coupe. But only at Rover's. Luc, almost next door, named for Thierry's father, is going gangbusters.

Long-rumored, too, is the new venture, the new Hat rack, the new centerpiece of Thierry's culinary ambition. Over the weekend, in Facebook posts datelined Madison Park, several of Rover's fans suggested that the name had been chosen: Loulay, the village in the French département of Charentes-Maritimes where Thierry was born. And the location, too: Sixth & Union, the very heart of downtown Seattle.

So Cornichon phoned Monsieur Rautureau today and posed the question: Loulay? Downtown?

And the response was, well, Gallic. "I don't have the whole photo in my head," Thierry said, "and until I do, I will say nothing."

Loulay isn't a bad name for a restaurant, especially if there's a family connection for its owner. Happens all the time. Mondello, in Magnolia, is a fishing village in Sicily near Corino Bonjrada's home town of Palermo. Place Pigalle and Montmartre are classic names for virtually any Parisian bistro. There are dozens of Budapest Hungarian restaurants, Madrid Spanish places. (The old Brasserie Pittsbourg was named for its predecessor, the Pittsburgh Lunch.) Sarajevo lounges? Not so many.

But the problem with "Loulay" as a name is, well, that it sounds like Lola. And Lola is the Greek-themed restaurant at 4th and Virginia owned by Thierry's good buddy Tom Douglas. G-gulp! Even if both you guys are cool with it, think of the confusion when a visitor to town asks a cabbie to take him to "that new place downtown, you know, la-la-something..." (Place Pigalle was bad enough; some visitors thought it was "Pig Palace.") As it is, we've got Marché in the Market and Marché on Bainbridge Island, both top-notch, but I bet Greg Atkinson and Daisley Gordon wouldn't mind a do-over. And that's not even counting Le Marché in Ballard. Sheesh!