If the French can be snobbish when it comes to food, they do make concessions for genres outside their brand, as it were. In the heart of Saint-Germain on the Rive Gauche in Paris, Cherry borrows from Italian trattoria menus and serves the classics in a low-lit New York boîte. The Paris-based Indie restaurant group, who reproduced the concept after a successful launch last year in Saint-Tropez, hopes the quintessentially germanopratin location, between Les Deux Magots and Rue du Four, will help it hit the sweet spot for Parisians.
Photography: courtesy of Cherry.
Photography: courtesy of Cherry.
Photography: Ludovic Balay.
Photography: courtesy of Cherry.
Photography: Ludovic Balay.
Interiors by New Yorker Sarita Posada bring retro Italo-American tropes up to the moment. Amid red-velvet curtains and a sleek mahogany envelope, banquettes are tailored around veiny marble tables with white tablecloths, set with retro red-banded bistro plates. The glistening brass-rail bar is lamp-lit to make everyone look their best when handed their Negroni. The cosy ambience suggests a jazz bar tucked away in Brooklyn, though hip-hop takes over the sound system in the wee hours.
Chef Oscar Aviles Santana toes the line with recettes Scorsesiennes — familiar dishes like veal meatballs and pasta alla vodka with a New York-aise Caesar salad side, heavy on the parmesan. It all goes down a charm in the land of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
Photography: courtesy of Cherry.
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Dining and Cooking