Even French cooking legend Julia Child would have been impressed by the passing of the baton at Le Veau d’Or, the city’s oldest French bistro reopening for dinner tonight on the Upper East Side, from one of the city’s most ambitious chef teams.
Chefs Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr had their eye on the French icon — open since 1937 — before Frenchette, the first restaurant they opened in 2018.
They called Catherine Treboux in 2012, the daughter of the third owner, Robert, to ask if she would ever consider selling.
“It’s so historic that we always thought the city should have come in here and preserved it,” says Hanson.
Then, after that Frenchette opening, Treboux reached back out after giving it some thought, and the conversation began.
Twelve years after first contacting the owner (with the restaurant closed for five of them), Le Veau d’Or (129 E. 60th Street, at Lexington Avenue), has finally opened with Hanson and Nasr at the helm.
In the interim, Hanson and Nasr have opened Le Rock, a splashy French restaurant in Rockefeller Center, in 2022; and a Tribeca bakery, as well as Frenchette at the Whitney, inside the Whitney Museum, in 2023. But Le Veau d’Or has occupied their imaginations for more than a decade, even as it was pushed to the back of their minds while they worked on their other endeavors.
Le Veau d’Or opens tonight.
The desire to revive an old-school stalwart has been a part of Hanson and Nasr’s education as cooks. The New York-famous pair first cooked together at Daniel in the 1990s before making names for themselves at Balthazar and Minetta Tavern.
Despite all the accolades, in some ways, this is the hardest restaurant opening yet — shepherding a place with an identity and legacy into the next generation. Part of the challenge is not just capturing newcomers who have come to their other restaurants, but also longtime Upper East Siders whose lives were shaped by the place.
“We want the regulars to come back,” says Nasr. “We do not want to put our own fingerprints on it.”
Since its first opening, Le Veau d’Or (the Golden Calf) has been a storied New York French bistro. Orson Welles had the window banquette. James Beard, Jacqueline Onassis, and Marlene Dietrich had house accounts. Under the ownership of three families, the restaurant has continuously served French bistro classics made famous in New York in the 1930s, served in the French Pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair, at the famous Le Pavillon, and La Côte Basque, among others.
Fast-forward over 80 years, and tonight’s opening prix-fixe is $125 per person. The dishes on the menu align with the restaurant’s history but are unique in the current French restaurant landscape for their strict adherence to the past. Leave it to Hanson and Nasr to make old French cuisine as relevant as ever.
Desserts at Le Veau d’Or.
The menu displays 10 appetizers, 10 entrees, and five desserts. Standouts from the first course selections include frog legs persillade, mackerel au vin blanc, tete de veau ravigote, pommes souffles caviar rouges a la creme, and tripes a la mode. Main courses offer dishes like les delices “Veau d’Or” (a trio of offal); hanger steak béarnaise or au poivre; and duck magret with cherry sauce. There’s a salad for the table. Cheese comes before dessert. Pastries from the group’s pastry chef Michelle Palazzo include iles flottantes or strawberries with sabayon.
Despite that many uptown establishment restaurants skew high-end, Nasr said he wanted the restaurant to take the cue from its more casual days. The tables are topped with gingham cloths, and while the room is spiffed up and the walls of memorabilia have been edited, the most classic hangings, like the painting of the sleeping calf — le veau dort — remain.
The recipe book behind the bar.
An old menu is framed on the wall.
A few other details on the place: An old ledger among the restaurant’s inherited books lists the visitors from the first day. An original menu hangs in the dining room. A book behind the bar lists the restaurant’s classic cocktails, including the Le Veau d’Or apéritif and Le Veau d’Or cocktail (Dubonnet, Champagne, kirsch, and an anchovy-stuffed cherry). The group’s bar manager Sarah Morrissey has a few spins of her own. While the old days offered red or white wine — no choices — the group’s longtime wine director Jorge Riera has assembled a French 100-bottle list that includes pours not seen outside France. The bar is for drinking only — no dining.
There will be walk-ins, but best of luck getting a table: at 55 seats, it remains a small restaurant for its caliber. Former owner Cathy Treboux’s son, Derek Summerlin, will be the opening maître d’.
While initially offering dinner service from Tuesday to Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m., Le Veau d’Or will be open for lunch Tuesday to Saturday beginning in mid-September. Reservations can be made online and through Resy.
Red gingham tablecloths make the space feel more casual than other French bistros in the area.
Scott Semler/Eater NY
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