A collection of dishes from Saverne from Gabriel Kreuther opening in Hudson Yards. Photo: Francesco Sapienza
Today, we’ve got a few things in the mix, starting with a look at brasseries from freelancer regular, Andrea Strong, as well as a few events in intel. Thanks for reading and enjoy the weekend. — Melissa McCart, lead editor, Eater Northeast
Inside Lex Yard at the Waldorf Astoria
By Andrea Strong
Last July, when the chef Michael Anthony opened Lex Yard at the storied Waldorf Astoria, he declared it was a brasserie, but an American one. His menu, steeped in spiffed-up stalwarts tied to the iconic property — a turkey club, a Waldorf salad, baked clams, a lobster roll, a signature burger — had nary a duck confit, steak tartare, oeuf mayonnaise, or soupe à l’oignon in sight. So the term brasserie was perhaps a curious one.
For Anthony, it made perfect sense. “We serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and we wanted approachability, not only the elegance of a fine dining restaurant,” he said at a panel discussion about the evolution of the brasserie.
Anthony is not the only one taking the French term and bending it to meet the mood of the moment. In June, Daniel Boulud will open Brasserie Boulud, a new flagship that combines three of his Upper West Side restaurants (Bar Boulud, Boulud Sud, and Épicerie Boulud) into one Rockwell-designed 10,000 square-feet flagship spanning two floors, with a light and airy main brasserie-styled dining room, and an intimate speakeasy. In the fall, pastry chef Camari Mick and Brittney “Stikxz” Williams, the chef of Miss Lily’s 7A Cafe known for her contemporary, elevated Jamaican cuisine, will open L’Atelier Ébène, an “Afro-Caribbean brasserie” serving jerk lobster thermidor, coconut canelés, and cassava Madeleines. Chef Gabriel Kreuther’s latest restaurant, Saverne in Hudson Yards (temporarily closed due to a fire), is dubbed “a modern wood-fired brasserie.” And Rocco Dispirito just unveiled his “Italian American brasserie” Bar Rocco in Midtown’s Kimpton Era Hotel, and the Serafina team will open Brasserie American by Michael Lomonaco, in a nearly 28,000 square-foot space on Seventh Avenue. Enter the era of brasseries without borders.
The term brasserie dates back to 19th-century Paris and originally referred to a boisterous and welcoming eating hall, where beer was both brewed and served. “It was a place to go where you left your cares and woes at the door, where you’re instantly welcomed,” said Jonathan Waxman, chef and owner of Barbuto, with locations in the West Village and Brooklyn. “The food is good, not terrific, but it doesn’t matter because the place is magical.”
The Waldorf salad at Lex Yard. Photo: Waldorf Astoria
Over the centuries, it evolved. “A brasserie started as a working restaurant — open all day, no ceremony, no friction,” said Rocco Dispirito, whose Italian brasserie serves meatballs, pastas, chops, and seafood. “It was a place you could get a proper meal at almost any hour, with consistency and a certain level of polish without feeling formal. In New York especially, it became shorthand for a big, lively room with a European point of view with food that should be recognizable and repeatable — dishes people want regularly, not just once. A brasserie menu isn’t about chasing trends; it’s about having a deep bench of things done really well.”
Brothers Bruce and Eric Bromberg were among the first to make the term “American brasserie” their own with the opening of Blue Ribbon Brasserie thirty years ago in an 800 square-foot space on a side street in Soho. The restaurant was inspired by trips with their father to Paris as kids, where they often ate at the brasserie Au Pied de Cochon.
“We wanted to open a place with continuous service that was lively,” said Eric, “but with the comfort foods of our childhoods – matzo ball soup, fried chicken, and mashed potatoes. We are American guys doing an American restaurant deeply steeped in French culture.”
While they could have leaned into the city’s semantics and called it a diner, they decided against it. “A diner has a lower-level connotation,” said Bruce. “A brasserie is far more elevated culinarily.”
The Brombergs opened the door in New York to a reinterpretation of the French model. “The idea behind brasserie is a restaurant that allows your customers to use it for a number of different reasons and levels of service and levels of occasion,” said John McDonald, the restaurateur behind the recently opened Seahorse, his sprawling seafood brasserie at the W Hotel. “It’s a chameleon, a blank canvas, ideal for interpretation. Restaurateurs can write it into their narrative.”
Spatzle fricassee at Saverne. Photo: Francesco Sapienza
That blank canvas is what’s fueling the current explosion of brasserie culture. Kreuther’s new brasserie, for instance, offers wood-fired roasted chicken, a trio of tarte flambees and pretzels with horseradish dip at the bar with beers. It’s a marked shift away from his Michelin-starred namesake. It’s a formula that works because “it signals freedom,” he says. “In an era when dining can feel overly precious, a brasserie promises, ‘come as you are, eat what you crave atmosphere’.”
Of their upcoming brasserie, Mick says, “L’Atelier Ébène is very personal to us. We are traveling up from the west coast of Africa, through the Caribbean up to the east coast of America. We consider it a love letter to our ancestors. We are taking that word ‘brasserie’ and developing it into our food today.”
Of course, the quintessential French brasserie still holds its appeal, but even Daniel Boulud has a soft spot for the “American” brasserie. For Boulud, “an American brasserie begins with the spirit of the French original: it’s about generosity, rhythm, and a certain joie de vivre. But it’s really in New York that I feel inspired to open one.”
The difference is that “in America, the brasserie becomes more dynamic, a little more open to the world. That balance, between heritage and evolution, is what makes it feel American to me.”
On May 29, Chama Mama hosts a Georgian Independence Day wine dinner at Platform by the James Beard Foundation at Pier 57 (25 11th Avenue). The evening spotlights rare qvevri wines — including what the restaurant claims is the world’s only qvevri-method sparkling wine — alongside traditional dishes rarely seen in New York, among them Duck Braised with Wild Plums and Wine and Pelamushi with Gozinaki. Tickets start at $185 and are available through the James Beard Foundation website.
This summer, Santo Taco (114 Kenmare Street as well as 94 University Place) is launching a Summer of Steak series — one-night-only collaborations with some of New York’s most famous meat institutions. Peter Luger kicks things off May 16 (Soho location only), followed by Keens (June 10), Katz’s Deli (June 23), Delmonico’s (July 16), and Smith & Wollensky (August 13), and Gage & Tollner (September 10).
Uptown cookbook bookstore Kitchen Arts & Letters is popping up at 111 Broadway at Thames Street from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The longtime Upper East Side bookstore is part of a Fidi free rent program from the Downtown Alliance.
Dining and Cooking