Coucou Arrives in the South Bay with Cold Martinis, French-Inspired Fare and the Effortlessly Stylish Warmth of a Neighborhood Bistro

Yet somehow it feels completely at home in this little beach town. That is exactly what founders Hayley and Jesse Feldman want.

“I hope that people feel like they’ve stepped off the streets of Paris into a little bistro,” Hayley says. “Our values are warmth, consistency and integrity, and that’s what I hope they feel when they walk in the door.”

Coucou, which translates loosely to a playful, affectionate “hello” in French, is the Feldmans’ love letter to France but also to the ritual of dining itself: lingering over a cocktail, sharing beautiful food, connecting with the people across the table. Inspired by the timeless bars and bistros of France, its menu marries traditional French fare with coastal California ingredients under the direction of Bouchon alum Chef Jacob Wetherington.

Hayley’s journey to hospitality began far from a restaurant kitchen. Raised in a small town in South Carolina, she attended the University of South Carolina before moving to New York, where she worked in digital marketing at Condé Nast. It was there that she met Jesse, who was working in finance and came from a family already deeply rooted in hospitality. They have owned a restaurant in Healdsburg for more than two decades, part of Northern California’s early farm-to-table movement.

The two shared a love of restaurants and travel, along with an especially deep affection for Paris. Eventually, corporate life began to lose its allure.

“We decided that we wanted to open a restaurant because it was our passion,” Hayley says. “We love to go out to eat, and creating this hospitality experience for others in our own way felt so appealing.”

At the same time they wanted to start a family, so the couple returned to Jesse’s native California, settling in Ocean Park and searching for a space. They found it in a former Venice art gallery filled with exposed brick and character.

“We said, this is something you would find on the streets of Paris or in New York. It’s a perfect place to open a little restaurant.”

Coucou Venice opened in 2023 to an enthusiastic reception. West Hollywood followed just a year later, tucked beside the Troubadour and Dan Tana’s, with a jasmine-covered patio creating a hidden oasis in the middle of the city. A third restaurant, however, was not necessarily part of the plan.

“We were kind of on the fence,” Hayley admits. “We have two; they’re so special. We didn’t want to suddenly sell out and become this chain. That was never our vision.”

Then life shifted. After the Palisades fires displaced the Feldmans from their Rustic Canyon home, they moved to France for two months. For two devoted Francophiles, it became an unexpected silver lining—a chance to immerse themselves in a culture that had already inspired so much of what they had created.

When they returned to Los Angeles, they noticed something else. Many of their longtime Venice customers had relocated to the South Bay.

“So many of our clientele, our Venice regulars, had left the Palisades and moved down to the South Bay,” Hayley says. “They love it here, and we thought, We should pay attention to this area.”

The more time they spent here, the more the decision made sense. “As we got to know the community, it was like, This is so special. I see why people are obsessed with it here and never leave. It feels like a small town in a big city.”

Coucou Manhattan Beach was born. Much of what makes the restaurant feel so personal comes directly from Hayley and Jesse, who design each location themselves, sourcing old-world materials, vintage pieces and art, much of it by independent female artists.

Jesse, who studied art, painstakingly curates the walls. Hayley laughs that his process can test the patience of her more impulsive Sagittarius nature.

That attention to detail extends to the table. The restaurant sources produce from the Santa Monica Farmers Market, uses pasture-raised, grass-fed beef and serves its nostalgic soft-serve sundae with Straus organic dairy in vintage, midcentury, mint-colored glass cups that Hayley hunts down herself.

The food is French-inspired rather than bound by tradition, allowing Southern California to make its way onto the plate. There are Beausoleil oysters, zucchini beignets with chèvre and mint, steak frites with hand-cut fries, and a beautiful hamachi ceviche with mango, jicama, avocado, coconut and chili oil. The latter may not be something you would expect to find in a Parisian bistro, but that is precisely the point.

“It also has a sense of place,” Hayley says. “We are on the west side of Los Angeles, next to the beach and the ocean.”

And then there is that soft-serve sundae: Luxardo cherries, almonds and chocolate sauce that hardens on contact. It is pure childhood nostalgia dressed up for dinner in Paris.

Since opening the doors in Manhattan Beach in April, any uncertainty the Feldmans had about a third Coucou has disappeared. “It’s been so great,” Hayley says. “As soon as we opened our doors, it was like a 180. This is the best decision we’ve made.”

One recent evening, she looked through the restaurant’s reservations and noticed that Coucou was already welcoming people back for their second and third visits. “Half of the people had already been with us at least once,” she says. “I was like, everybody here is already a regular.”

And perhaps that says everything. For all its beautiful marble, flickering light, vintage glassware, French aperitifs and impossibly chic art, Coucou ultimately isn’t about transporting us somewhere else. It is about creating the kind of place we want to return to: the neighborhood restaurant where the food is beautiful, the martinis are cold, the welcome is warm and, before long, somebody knows your name.