Francis Staub signed a 15-year lease for the 173-seat La Brasserie.
Stefano Giovannini
When the late Anthony Bourdain blew the lid off the restaurant business in his guide Kitchen Confidential, he was working as Brasserie Les Halles’ government chef — the place he’d been since 1998.
Now that house — closed since 2016 – has reopened as La Brasserie. Francis Staub, who operates a forged iron cookware firm beneath his personal identify, signed a 15-year lease for the 173-seat restaurant.
The eatery closed in 2016 and Bourdain, who tragically dedicated suicide in 2018, had been lengthy gone from behind the range. Nonetheless, so strongly related to the restaurant was Bourdain that when he died, grieving New Yorkers turned the realm outdoors the restaurant right into a spontaneous shrine.
The spot at 411 Park Avenue South, which features a 20-person zinc bar and a 12-seat terrace, reopened this spring.
“I all the time beloved Les Halles, even when the meals wasn’t excellent,” Staub tells Facet Dish. “It was an old school place, like La Coupole in Paris.”
When he heard the three,800 sq. foot house was up for lease, he jumped.
Staub’s iron pots are beloved by prime cooks. His first foray into New York eating places is his in style upscale poultry spot Le Coq Rico within the Flatiron District, which has since been renamed and quickly closed for renovations. He has one other restaurant, Le Théatre in Alsace, within the city of Colmar..
La Brasserie’s design options the kind of dim lights, crimson leather-based banquettes, darkish wooden and white tablecloths that French-loving New Yorkers adore.
When Bourdain dominated Les Halles, the eatery — which opened in 1990 — was recognized for the butcher store up entrance and the bistro within the again, together with numerous meat-heavy dishes, from steak frites to steak tartare ready tableside.
Its new iteration can be somewhat extra glam — however not an excessive amount of, and it'll nonetheless boast these basic French and American bistro dishes, together with a good French wine record.
However does a brand new spot rising on the iconic brasserie stand an opportunity?
“I believe it’s cool,” mentioned prime French chef Eric Ripert, of Le Bernardin, who mentioned he used to dine there as soon as a month again within the day — even earlier than he knew Bourdain, who turned an in depth pal. “However it must be its personal entity and never keep up to now.”
Staub agreed, although he’s preserving a steak dish with do-it-yourself French frites in honor of Bourdain.
New dishes — from Chef Jaime Loja, previously of Del Frisco’s Restaurant Group and a longtime chef de delicacies at Brasserie Ruhlmann — will embody loads of souflé and touches of Alsace, the place Staub is from.
They’ll embody: souflé with caviar, a côte de boeuf for 2, completed with brandy and served on a mattress of rock sale, together with a foie gras torchon with date-lemon chutney, roast rooster with tarragon, Arctic chair grenobloise with haricots verts and curried mussels in coconut milk.
Ripert hasn’t popped in but, however he says he'll. He dined at Les Halles lengthy earlier than he knew Bourdain, who turned an expensive pal.
In his guide, Bourdain describes working at Les Halles with a multicultural crew in a tiny kitchen that was exhausting to navigate along with his six foot-four body.
As soon as he turned an award-winning TV persona, he returned to shoot a phase there with Ripert.
“Tony requested if I'd come to Les Halles and be a line prepare dinner with him for his present, “No Reservations,” and I mentioned sure. I believe he was shocked,” Ripert mentioned. “He put me on the grilling station, which is the toughest. I ended up spending an evening there being the man on the grill. We spent an evening cooking and grilling. It was insane. The quantity was so quick and I used to be having numerous enjoyable. It was an excellent group.”
Ripert says his different Les Halles reminiscences are from the eating room, “which was nice, however not the identical” as being within the kitchen there.
Bourdain’s legacy transcended cooking to “reinvent journalism on tv,” Ripert mentioned. “He had the background of a chef however he wished individuals to journey and be curious and be taught — to depart the resort and go and discover. His reveals turned extra political as time went on however primarily they have been on tradition found via meals.”
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