Business partners Thomas Cauquil and brewer Vincent de Soyres spent months hiking and climbing in eastern Siberia.
"We came across 27 bears and somewhere along the line, talking and thinking about food and alcohol, we came up with the idea of this venue," de Soyres explains.
Frenchies Bistro & Brewery opens in Rosebery on Thursday but has been years in the making.
The duo met at hospitality school in Paris in 2005, eventually making their way to Australia.
"Wherever we worked here we were called the Frenchies, so it made sense to call it that," he says.
A marriage of bistro and brewery, Cauquil will tap his experience at Michelin-starred El Chaflan in Madrid and Le Violon d'Ingres in Paris as well as Sydney restaurant Moxhe with the food menu.
Veal tongue carpaccio and a bone marrow and beef stew are slated for the constantly changing menu.
"The French actually drink more beer than wine. The beer is a little like Belgian beer, but drier. My motto for brewing is it has to have complexity but be refreshing," the brewer says.
He's made Frenchies a family affair by enlisting his retired engineer father to make tabletops and floorboards and shipped them over from France.
"He has 100-year-old oak trees in his backyard. One of them fell, he's been ageing the timber for five years."
Open Mon-Thu 11.30am-10pm; Fri 11.30am-11pm; Sat 10am-11pm; Sun 10am-5pm.
The Cannery, 6/61-71 Mentmore Avenue, Rosebery, frenchiesbistroandbrewery.com.au