La Petite Grocery has long been one of Uptown New Orleans‘ most beloved bistros blending French technique with Southern soul. Now, as Co-Owner Mia Devillier puts it, the Magazine Street staple is adding a nearby Italian cousin to the family.
The team behind the acclaimed La Petite Grocery — Mia Devillier, chef Justin Devillier and business partner Joel Dondis — is preparing to open Daughter’s Neighborhood Italian this fall in the historic former Upperline Restaurant space at 1413 Upperline St.
Construction is already underway, with the group targeting a late September opening.
“La Petite Grocery and Daughter’s are distinct concepts, but both are deeply personal and rooted in our family heritage. La Petite is the French cousin and Daughter’s is the Italian cousin,” said Mia Devillier, Co-Owner and Director of Operations of the Devillier Hospitality Group. “We felt there was a gap between the beloved old-school red sauce institutions and the newer, more modern Italian concepts. Daughter’s will live somewhere between those two worlds.”
The restaurant’s name honors the couple’s daughters, along with the daughter of business partner, Joel Dondis. Mia Devillier said the name reflects the heart of the concept: gathering around the table to share good food and create meaningful memories.
“The guiding philosophy, ‘Family is our motto,’ means every guest is welcomed like family, and every detail is handled with care,” said Mia Devillier. “I’m a third-generation Italian American, and in recent years, my family has spent time reconnecting with our Italian relatives. This restaurant is a continuation of that journey — a way to honor and share that history through food and hospitality.”
She added: “We want it to be a neighborhood restaurant where people often gather, whether that’s a bowl of pasta on a Tuesday night, Sunday brunch, drinks at the bar, or a special dinner in the private dining room.”
James Beard Award–winning chef Justin Devillier will lead the kitchen. His menu will emphasize elevated technique and high-quality ingredients, drawing from both Italian tradition and New Orleans influence, and will feature a mix of familiar Italian-American classics.
“We’re blending the warmth of Italian American red-sauce traditions with the standards, quality, and creativity that we are known for,” said Justin Devillier. “These are dishes people know and love but executed with the same care and refinement we’ve brought to La Petite Grocery over the past two decades.”
For the Devilliers and Dondis, the project is also closely tied to the history of the building itself. Mia Devillier said the group had been fans of Upperline for years, and their research into the site revealed that the property also had an Italian restaurant history dating back to the 1930s, before Upperline became one of New Orleans’ most beloved dining institutions across several decades under restaurateur and former owner JoAnn Clevenger.
“Once we started researching the building and learned it had an Italian history dating back to the 1930s, it felt like a natural fit for the concept we had already been thinking about,” said Mia Devillier. “In a way, it feels like we’re not starting something new — we’re reviving something that was already part of the building’s story.”
Mia Devillier said the concept itself began to take shape when the team initially looked at the property in 2022. “We walked in and thought, ‘This would be an incredible Italian red sauce joint.’ But the timing was just not right, so with the space still being available, we revisited, and the timing finally felt right. The stars aligned,” she said.
Daughter’s will be an approximate 100-seat restaurant that will include a dedicated bar program featuring Italian-inspired cocktails and curated wines, as well as multiple private dining spaces, including a second-floor dining room that accommodates up to 40 seated guests or 60 for reception-style events. The restaurant is scheduled to be open for dinner service nightly, weekday lunches, and Sunday brunch.
The restaurant is currently undergoing a complete restoration and buildout, with Studiowest serving as architect and interior designer and Arch Builders as general contractor. The Devilliers intend to honor the building’s rich history while creating a new identity that serves the Uptown community for generations to come.
“Our biggest challenge — and also our biggest opportunity — is honoring the history of the building without trying to recreate what was there before,” she said. “We’re not trying to reopen Upperline. We’re opening Daughter’s in a building that has its own story, and it’s our job to give it a new chapter that feels worthy of what came before it.”
The longstanding layout will remain, including the main entrance on Upperline, the bar in the same place, and the kitchen in the same place. The team is also restoring hardwood floors, terrazzo flooring in the front bar room, and other integral historic elements. The interior will also intentionally shift in feel as diners move through the building. The front bar room may have a darker, moodier, den-like feel with rich colors, while the palette will soften toward the Pitt Street side and the back dining room. The second floor will be used as a dedicated private event space.
“Even though we’re opening a new restaurant in a building with a storied past, we want it to feel familiar from the very first visit,” she said. “We want it to be warm, genuinely welcoming, and a place people want to go often — a place that feels like it has been there forever.”
The opening also represents what Mia Devillier described as a deliberate next step for the group behind La Petite Grocery. “This represents thoughtful growth. It’s not expansion for expansion’s sake — it’s adding a concept that fills a real need and that we’re genuinely passionate about.”
Dining and Cooking