Populaire, a contemporary French restaurant, will take the place of Lawry’s Carvery in South Coast Plaza.

Ross Pangilinan and Nicholas Weber will be partners in the restaurant, coming in late May. Pangilinan owns and operates Terrace by Mix Mix at South Coast Plaza, Mix Mix Kitchen & Bar in Santa Ana and ReMix Kitchen Bar in Long Beach. Weber is the former executive chef of 24 Carrots and has worked at Catal Restaurant at Downtown Disney, Pinot Provence in Costa Mesa and The Cannery in Newport Beach.

It’s the reunion of two alums of the Patina Restaurant Group.

“I can’t think of anyone who deserves his own restaurant more than Nick. We work really well together and he’s an extremely talented chef,” said Pangilinan.

“We’ve worked together at so many restaurants and have so much culinary history together, but we’re also really good friends, so it made sense to open a restaurant together. There’s no one I trust more,” said Weber, who will serve as Populaire’s co-owner and executive chef.

French cuisine is having a moment right now in Orange County. It started years ago with Pascal and Marché Moderne, but in the last few years many more have joined the brigade, most notably: Knife Pleat, Délice Breton, multiple locations of Moulin, Butcher’s House Brasserie and most recently Parisian boutique Petrossian at Tiffany in South Coast Plaza.

Weber has been adding his twists to traditional French dishes and one’s a doozy. Instead of serving escargots in shells dripping with butter, he encases them in savory sauerkraut abelskivers and serves them with a garlic buttermilk dipping sauce garnished with emerald green parsley oil.

“It’s a good way to get kids to eat snails,” Weber quips. “Tell them it’s a doughnut.”

The menu is ever-evolving but some dishes on the preliminary roster include a 12-ounce prime bavette steak with sauce au poivre, whipped potatoes and braised oxtail jam ($40); duck breast with red endive, brown butter beet puree, pickled cherries and black garlic molasses ($40); and Spanish Octopus with Koji crème fraiche, cured green tomato and hemp seed crumble ($32).

For dessert, pastry chef Margeaux Aragon will whip up Paris-Brest and other goodies.

“She did all the pastries at Mozza in L.A. for a long time, so she’s got some of that Nancy Silverton stardust on her,” Weber said.

Alyssa McDiarmid, a former general manager and wine buyer for Marché Moderne will curate the wine list and she favors bottles from France and Spain.

A face-lift will be given to the 3,500-square-foot space with a patio inside the mall, a second outdoor patio and a dining room. Each of the three sections will seat 36 diners. VX Design Solutions will create a new casual French vibe with a color palette of blues and grays, an accent wall with floral wallpaper, marble-topped tables and bistro chairs.

This new stage will be a new chapter, built on the relationship between the two chefs who have been friends for a long time and even vacation together. Pangilinan, 44, will take on more of the restaurateur role and Weber, 38, will be the main chef.

The two share a strong bond despite their differences. Pangilinan went to Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, Weber learned on the job. They both grew up in Southern California but Pangilinan was raised eating Asian, especially Filipino fare, while Weber ate lots of Mexican and Italian food because that was his family’s background.

“He leans a little bit on the Filipino side,” said Weber of Pangilinan. “And his plate ups are a little bit more French style, fine dining, like three-star Michelin style restaurants where I’m very rustic on my plates.”

“When I first started working with him, I was really inspired by him because he was cooking with aggression,” Pangilinan said of Weber. “He was this younger, a lot skinnier guy with a mohawk. A crazy, get-out-of-my-way kind of guy. He was the real cook, like what you would see in a movie. Now he’s evolved. His dishes are really well thought out.”

Still the two opposites mesh, meld and already see themselves as one.

“We had each other’s back because we worked side by side every night,” Weber said. “So we always cooked really well together.”

“Yeah. It’s a respect thing,” said Pangilinan.

Find it: 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa, in South Coast Plaza on Level 2, Saks Fifth Avenue wing, populaireoc.com.Open: Regular hours will begin when the restaurant opens in June. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-9 Friday-Saturday; 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday.

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