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Tackling community issues. Celebrating local voices.
At Bar Purlieu, the menu changes weekly, but the philosophy remains constant: exceptional ingredients, prepared with French technique, served without pretense.
The word “purlieu” (pronounced pearl-yoo if you’re French, but pearl-loo works, too) once described the areas around medieval forests where people gathered freely on land that feudal landowners weren’t allowed to own. Fittingly, this small Eugene bistro has become a modern-day hangout where neighbors congregate. It’s an approach that has turned the restaurant into something special, equally comfortable serving escargot to adventurous diners and welcoming regulars who just want great food in their neighborhood.
From Olive Garden to ownership
The story of Bar Purlieu begins not in France, but in an Olive Garden, although there is a European connection. Joe Kiefer-Lucas and Laura Hines first met as coworkers in an Olive Garden in 2010, when both had graduated from college and both were contemplating graduate school — Hines for nutrition after studying economics and psychology and Kiefer-Lucas for literature. But the economy and the restaurant industry had other plans.
“We were both victims of graduating in inopportune times economically,” Hines said. “In that process, we kept working in restaurants and then found ourselves committed to making it a career.”…