{"id":37830,"date":"2026-10-08T22:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T22:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/37830\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T22:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T22:00:10","slug":"daniel-boulud-opens-new-brasserie-in-nyc-inside-the-wine-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/37830\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Boulud Opens New Brasserie in NYC: Inside the Wine List"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the summer of 2025, acclaimed French chef Daniel Boulud shocked New York City when he announced the abrupt closure of three restaurants\u2014Bar Boulud, Boulud Sud and \u00c9picerie Boulud\u2014all on the same corner across from Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The three spaces were to be merged to debut a brasserie, with plans to open that fall.<\/p>\n

Things took longer than expected, but Brasserie Boulud opens today, October 8. This week, head sommelier Josh MacGregor\u2019s most-used word has been \u201cThursday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were on the patio, and I probably had to tell 500 people passing by that we\u2019re finally opening Thursday,\u201d MacGregor told Wine Spectator.<\/p>\n

The restaurant marks the return of Boulud\u2019s signature Lyonnaise hospitality back to the neighborhood. The new merged space\u2014with a footprint of more than 7,500 square feet\u2014was designed by Rockwell Group, with checkered flooring, luxe red leather banquettes and a large central bar. Paintings of ballerinas, jazz singers and other performers line the walls as a nod to the neighborhood. The wine list, led by MacGregor, currently features more than 850 wines, largely transferred from Boulud Sud\u2019s Best of Award of Excellence\u2013winning cellar. (MacGregor was the head sommelier for the restaurant when it closed.)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Brasserie Boulud menu features sections dedicated to charcuterie, sausages and other French classics. (Bill Milne)<\/p>\n

In recent years, brasseries have proliferated across New York City\u2014from Hudson Yards to the West Village. With such a large space, Boulud looked to outfit a menu to serve nearly anyone\u2014tourists to neighborhood regulars, large parties to Martini-sippers sitting at the bar. \u201cA brasserie signifies the scale of the restaurant, the scale of the menu, the scale of the offerings,\u201d Boulud told Wine Spectator. \u201cIt\u2019s part bourgeois cuisine, part regional cuisine. There is a certain affordability in a restaurant like that\u2014it\u2019s a restaurant that people can easily come back to or be in large groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

This August, while Wine Spectator was visiting his Grand Award winner, Daniel, on the Upper East Side, Boulud pulled out a copy of the Brasserie Boulud menu. This project was inspired by a bona fide brasserie, Brasserie Georges, the chef went to as a child in Lyon. \u201cI always wished I had a Brasserie Georges in New York,\u201d says Boulud.<\/p>\n

As he scanned down the expansive menu\u2014with sections dedicated to house-made charcuteries, sausages and brasserie standbys\u2014Boulud grinned ear-to-ear describing each dish: from \u0153ufs mayonnaise with duck prosciutto to p\u00e2t\u00e9 en cro\u00fbte, steak frites to pied de cochon (a whole pig\u2019s trotter). \u201cThere\u2019ll be enough choice that no one will be offended that I\u2019m serving pied de cochon,\u201d says Boulud. The kitchen\u2019s day-to-day operations will be led by executive chef Christina d\u2019Angelo.<\/p>\n

In the wine cellar, head sommelier MacGregor doubles down on the heart of France by focusing on the regions surrounding Lyon: Burgundy, the Rh\u00f4ne and greater Southern France. \u201cMy wine list philosophy is that Lyon is the center of the universe,\u201d says MacGregor, who started his career in wine at now-closed Grand Award winner Tribeca Grill.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Rockwell Group merged the three former restaurants into one\u00a07,500-square-foot\u00a0brasserie. (Jason Varney)<\/p>\n

The cellar features an extensive selection of vintage Beaujolais, with pages dedicated to library selections of producers Jean Foillard and M. Lapierre dating back to 2009. \u201cWith old Beaujolais, when it\u2019s good, it\u2019s good\u2014especially if you love savory wines,\u201d says MacGregor. \u201cThere\u2019s strawberry and cherry fruit still there, but you get all this savory spice and meatiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacGregor spoke to Wine Spectator about highlights on the wine list, the wine and food pairing he will always turn to and the regions wine lovers should look to for value.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s one wine people would be surprised to see well-represented in this cellar?<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t line up with the \u201cphilosophy\u201d necessarily, but I love Gr\u00fcner Veltliner from Austria. Even though it doesn\u2019t necessarily make sense with the French identity, I\u2019m always going to have a small selection of Gr\u00fcner because it is a sommelier Swiss Army knife for pairings, especially with bitter foods. People talk about Burgundy and the Benedictine and Cistercian monks, but the same Cistercian order was making wines in the Kamptal and the Wachau going back at least to the 12th century.<\/p>\n

What are the food and wine pairings everyone should try at Brasserie Boulud?<\/p>\n

Northern Rh\u00f4ne Syrah with lamb is always one of my favorite combinations. I\u2019m happy to shout that out to anybody who cares to listen. The Beaujolais with our p\u00e2t\u00e9 program will be a hit. I\u2019m really looking forward to pairing meats with the savory reds of Beaujolais and the Rh\u00f4ne Valley.<\/p>\n

Which sections of your wine list have really great value?<\/p>\n

I love certain C\u00f4tes du Rh\u00f4ne-Villages, such as Saint-Maurice, which is especially fascinating for me next to Visan [in the Southern Rh\u00f4ne]. The blend shifts because of the microclimate, and it\u2019s Syrah supported by Grenache instead of the other way around. There are really only two or three producers of it in the U.S. market. I think those are some of the most interesting and compelling wines in the Southern Rh\u00f4ne.<\/p>\n

There is such diversity in the category of C\u00f4tes du Rh\u00f4ne-Villages. People know the Southern Rh\u00f4ne for Ch\u00e2teauneuf-du-Pape and they have one idea of what those wines are like. But the Southern Rh\u00f4ne is a plunderer\u2019s paradise\u2014you\u2019ve got nearly every soil type imaginable.<\/p>\n

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In the summer of 2025, acclaimed French chef Daniel Boulud shocked New York City when he announced the abrupt closure of three restaurants\u2014Bar Boulud, Boulud Sud and \u00c9picerie Boulud\u2014all on the same corner across from Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The three spaces were to be merged to debut a brasserie,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[45,46],"class_list":["post-37830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-french-restaurants","tag-french-restaurant","tag-french-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117407538478478264","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}