The restaurant is open daily for brunch and dinner, and includes two separate happy hours.

ST. PETERSBURG — The Grand Aioli had me stumped.

There it was, a colorful reimagination of the classic Provençal dish: sprigs of snappy green asparagus sidling juicy tomatoes, crispy stalks of celery, plump shrimp, jammy eggs and thinly sliced radishes. In the center of the plate, the piece de resistance: aioli — a thick emulsion that traces its roots to the Mediterranean made with olive oil and lots of garlic. It’s something I can never quite get enough of.

The Cognac Burger features a Black Angus beef patty, melted Emmental cheese and bacon on a buttery Brioche bun.

But this was unlike any aioli I’d ever had: It was much lighter, tangier and flecked with herbs, with a consistency more akin to a salad dressing than a mayonnaise.

The first time I dined at Cognac, a new French bistro in downtown St. Petersburg, I brought a group of friends with me. There were five of us in total, and the Grand Aioli confused them, too. It wasn’t that it was bad — it was actually pretty good. But it wasn’t a traditional aioli, at least not the kind you’d expect to find at a French restaurant. (Some aioli recipes incorporate egg yolks, while others feature only olive oil and garlic.)

Proprietors Christophe Guillot and Philippe Challeau opened this French-inspired restaurant in February, taking over the corner building at 201 Second Ave. N. The space was formerly home to the short-lived Dirty Shirley and, before that, the diner concept 2nd & Second, which attracted a solid cadre of downtown fans during its roughly five-and-a-half year tenure.

The restaurant includes seating for roughly 150 people, including a long bar and outside sidewalk seating.

Guillot and Challeau are no strangers to downtown St. Pete’s culinary scene: The duo also run Bacchus Wine Bistro, a petite restaurant popular with the Beach Drive NE crowd, known for its solid cheese and charcuterie boards and European wine program. For their newer, much larger spot, the team saw an opportunity to bring French bistro fare to downtown St. Pete. They brought over Bacchus chef Louis DeBiase, who is now overseeing Cognac as executive chef.

La Grand Aioli is served at Cognac, a new French restaurant in downtown St. Petersburg.

When I spoke with Guillot about the menu, he admitted there was still a lot in flux. Dishes are still being tweaked and additional plates are being added, he said. But the spot’s ambition to emulate a traditional French bistro hasn’t wavered.

“It’s really French,” he said. “If you go to any brasserie or restaurant on a corner in Paris, that’s what we’re trying to do. We didn’t reinvent anything.”

The space, which fits about 150 diners including a long bar and outside seating, is decorated in a charming, Parisian fashion, with cozy bistro chairs, replicas of the Eiffel Tower and a large mirror behind the bar. The current menu is divided into hors d’oeuvres, salads, fish and meat, caviar and grilled seafood, sandwiches and sides. It’s not exactly a small menu, but one that Guillot said is still growing.

On my second visit to the restaurant, I again ordered the Grand Aioli ($16) and, again, it more closely resembled a creamy herb-packed dressing than what I was expecting. This time, I noticed the wording on the menu, which described it as a “Cognac aioli sauce.” That did leave some room for interpretation, and, of course, chefs can (and by all means should) put their spin on whatever they make — it’s their kitchen, after all.

When asked to describe the dish, a server said it came with a traditional aioli. When I asked Guillot about it, he, too, said the aioli in question was traditional, and that he didn’t think it included herbs but that he’d have to check. “Like a mayonnaise on steroids,” he told me, referring to the traditional recipe’s punchy use of garlic.

Traditional or not, the “aioli” also finds itself onto the spot’s excellent Cognac Burger ($19), with a juicy Black Angus beef patty, melted Emmental cheese and bacon on a buttery Brioche bun. It’s one of the menu’s definitive high points. Another is the creative yet still very traditional play on a duo of foie gras ($32), where a silky piece of pan-seared foie sidles a chilled and sliced torchon, flecked with sea salt and paired with Luxardo cherries and bright orange segments.

Cognac, a new French bistro in downtown St. Petersburg, opened in February.

A middling steak frites ($33) on one visit featured a lean sirloin steak, which, though cooked to a nice medium rare, could have benefitted from a better cut of meat. Guillot said the restaurant has served New York strip in the past and that they are considering swapping in a bavette cut at some point in the future.

Fish doesn’t fare nearly as well here. The Truite aux Amandes ($31) — rainbow trout with almonds — paired the flaky white fish with creme fraiche and a creamy potato gratin. Though the fish was cooked well, the plate could have used some citrus or acid to brighten it up. Grilled sardines ($14), usually one of my favorite dishes, were a head scratcher, tasting overly fishy on two separate visits. The grilled prawns ($16) and plump scallops ($18) are a much better bet.

The restaurant’s happy hour is a pretty good deal. From 3 to 6 p.m., a small selection of dishes are $5, including juicy shrimp cocktail and a solid grilled lamb chop lollipop, which was delivered medium rare, juicy and extremely flavorful with a bright green chimichurri. And a daily brunch happy hour runs from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. featuring deals on mimosas and Bloody Marys.

While Bacchus only serves beer and wine, Cognac stocks a full bar with several cocktails and a solid wine program, with some nice French wines by the glass at decent prices and a white, red and rose available in an $18 carafe (a bar staff with a heavy-handed pour doesn’t hurt, either).

Though some dishes at Cognac still feel like a work in progress, there are classics like a light and zingy mesclun salad with bronzed and melted goat cheese ($13) and a tasty Croque Monsieur ($15) that feel très Parisien. Made with thick slices of jambon de Paris (French cooked ham), gooey melted Gruyere cheese and layers of creamy bechamel sauce, the sandwich feels perfectly in tune with what Cognac is striving to be, even if it isn’t there quite yet.

If you go to Cognac

Hours: Open daily for breakfast and brunch from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dinner runs from 3 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 3 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Prices: Appetizers, $12 to $32; sandwiches, $15 to $19; entrees, $29 to $54.

Don’t skip: Cognac burger, duo de foie gras, Croque Monsieur.

Details: Wheelchair accessible. Sidewalk seating. Brunch happy hour from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Regular happy hour from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. daily.