Mason Moore and Vaughan Moore | 4 July 2020

PLANS are looking positive for a former French-inspired eatery and bar space based in Edward’s Corner on Regent Street, located in Hinckley town centre.

Signs were spotted by eagle-eyed towngoers and residents in the windows of the former Petite Chouette space, which revealed that the eatery is set to be taken over by a new management team.

The good news comes just 29 days after it shut its doors on 5 June last month.

The signage simply reads: “Opening soon under new management.”

The Petite Chouette branding has been painted over white, hiding the past visual identity with residents speculating over the new use as the plans look to be under wraps at the moment.

As of this writing, it is currently unknown who the new management group are, what they have planned for the café, and what their vision is for the space.

What Petite Chouette was and why it closed

Petite Chouette (which translates to “Little Owl” in English) was a family-run French-inspired cafe owned by Paul and Ali Lancaster which set up shop back in February 2018. It was located next door to the Mark Jarvis bookies space.

The owners made the sad decision to close the doors due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic but have retained their online store and continue to trade digitally, where they sell a range of cheese, vinegar and also coffee.

Back in June, a spokesperson for Petite Chouette spoke to the Hinckley Free Press about their closure in the town.

They said: “Unfortunately we made the decision to vacate our current premises for various reasons – one being the size of our establishment which was only 18 covers. 

“Adhering to the social distancing rules would mean we could only accommodate 6 covers, which would not be sustainable.

“Secondly, we felt that it was not viable to continue to pay rent for a premises that was sat empty. We are incredibly sad to have closed our doors, for now and cannot thank our customers enough for their loyal and valued support.

“We have an online shop where people can order cheese, wine and deli products and we are adding to this weekly.

“We are taking this opportunity to look at how we can run our little owl cafe bar in the future and have lots of exciting ideas which we are working on at the moment.”

Their online web store can be found at their website on www.petitechouette.co.uk.

The Hinckley Free Press shall keep you updated with any information as the story develops.