a day ago
Talking Burger Malaise And Dining With NYC's Chef Angie Mar
For some of us, the memory of a sweet melted popsicle trickling down our arms at the end of a summer day is emblazoned as a carefree taste of youth when all's right with the world. For Chef Angie Mar, however, it's veal kidneys at a French bistro in Paris with her father. That was the childhood moment that truly, viscerally, changed everything. She was eight. Today at her restaurant Le B., she ignites that same essence of nostalgia and play as it abuts indulgence and culinary art on a corner in New York's Greenwich Village.
Like Angie at eight, it is impossible for diners to leave Le B. without being forever changed. From her limited edition Le Burger that causes both joy and conflict, to the exquisite technique and masterful tasting menu she and her team meticulously execute, Chef Mar wants diners to enter Le B. with an open mind, a curious palate, and a willingness to trust that her food can delight in unexpected ways. It's as she and her team often say, 'the food you didn't know you needed.'
If Cobbles Could Talk
Mar has now spent nearly two decades on West 12th Street. First at the New York institution that was The Beatrice Inn, a place that stood for 100 years--from speakeasy and ultra chic lounge to a club-like chophouse-- it has endured many lives. When she stepped in over a decade ago --took over the kitchen in 2013 and purchased it in 2015--it was all but spent, hanging on to a whisp of its colorful past; a place that pampered and entertained the city's A-listers. Under her watch it quickly became an establishment food media darlings noticed. It was no longer just a place to be seen, but one to be seen while eating very, very well. Mar turned around its culinary reputation and brought a flock of new diners through its doors; and soon they came specifically for her.
She had become her own force of nature alongside the original Beatrice's namesake, a Gilded Age icon of New York hospitality. In 2019 Butcher & Beast by Mar was published; it's a book that brings the world of New York nightlife and dining of a decade ago to life--from the fashion and the art to the musicians and actors, celebrities alike--Mar and photographer Johnny Miller captured the electricity contained inside the walls of the Inn. Butcher & Beast is memoir to that time and space and less a cookbook or memoir of Mar's culinary life.
By 2020, Mar shed the costume of the past and The Beatrice Inn and was ready to helm her own restaurant right next door, ironically enough; it was reincarnated in 2021 as Les Trois Chevaux and represented a culinary fresh start. And for two years she did just that. Mar got her feet wet in her own kitchen, and tempered a new identity. Still luxurious, still driven by French technique, still underscored by classical dishes, yet still shrouded by the reputation and menus of the Inn's meat and potato past. She knew meat, yes; she did it well; she caused a rumbling desire for her butchering skills and craft; and yet, much of that was thrust upon her from the underbelly of Beatrice's shadow.
The only way to really express who she was as a chef without a tie to the B of yesteryear was to take yet another step. So, nearly two years ago, in September 2023, the lights of Les Trois Chevaux went out and the chic, rose pink light on the face of Le B. switched on. With a Picasso from her grandfather's collection a breath away from the door on the right, the old sign from the Beatrice Inn purposely unlit on the wall to the left, and the sparkle from a chandelier that once dazzled in Brooklyn's grand Prospect Hall, Le B. had become all Mar.
Sure, Mar's sought after Le Burger is still offered, in all its glory, in Le B's stylish design, with diners causing a stir just to get one of the mere decadent nine offered each night, but it is in every dish of her sumptuous, ever-changing Tasting Menu, where she gets to, tap into the whimsy of being an artist, a highly-trained technician who creates on the plate with the best-of-the-best ingredients she and her team can find.
When asked about that sweet yet transformative moment at eight years old, she beams with a wide grin, bright eyes, and her signature rasp, 'That was it. I was done. I was actually done,' she recalled. 'I didn't know food could taste like that.' Until then Mar said she knew American food, having grown up in Seattle; Chinese food at home with an emphasis on her mom's delicious Taiwanese cuisine; and the British food she and her family knew from annual trips to London.
'It really changed everything for me. I had even asked to stay there,' she said, knowing that a cousin was living there in boarding school. Although she didn't stay, of course, when she returned to the States, she'd pull up a stool in the kitchen with her dad, and Julia Child's Mastering The Art of French Cooking became the next best thing to reliving the spark that lit her up so indelibly at that Parisian bistro.
Much later, after traveling across Europe, and a stint in real estate in Los Angeles, she went to culinary school. Soon after, a light bulb flickered again, followed by a Eureka moment of a similar ilk from her Parisian awakening. Now, it was stateside, in New York, at Charlie Palmer's Aureole. She was astonished by the blend of French technique and skill, alongside American flavors. It is where she realized she could marry the flavors of her international background and experiences onto a plate, and, if executed at a high level, be an identity all its on.
Today at Le B. you will see dishes that feel like rock 'n' roll and classical music are working hand in hand; where French technique and finesse run throughout each dish, but also where a Taiwanese Duck may meet Pacific Northwest Salmon or Japanese Wagyu meets the all American potato; where a London Pub makes way for an old speakeasy in New York's West Village.
DUO OF TERRINES, loquat gelée, candied kumquat, caperberriesCALF'S BRAIN RAVIOLI, osetra, sauce de japonPOT AU FEU, hudson valley foie gras, crisp spring vegetable, consommé of wild cèpesSALMON & CEDAR, ora king salmon, basil nageFRICASSE OF SPRING RABBIT, peas & carrots, sauce moutardeDUCKLING ROYALE, jasmine, cassis, pommes purée THE PIG'S TROTTER, stuffed trotter 'a la koffman', port demi-glacePAIN PERDU, HONG KONG STYLE, passion fruit confiture, tête de moineORANGE BLOSSOM ICECAMBRIDGE BURNT CREAM, chanterelle, tahitian vanillaMADELEINESPISTACHIO SOUFFLE
Chefs look to each other for support and camaraderie and Mar is no different. She finds comfort in the booths of Le Bernardin or Per Se; inspiration at Gabriel Kreuther and at Daniel of Daniel Boulud. Mar says she even considers Jacques Pepin like a second father, someone whom she feels privileged to seek counsel. All men, yes, but chefs she knows will celebrate her achievements, vouch for her passion and skill, and point to her firm seat at the table of fine dining engineers. Once she opened Le Trois Chevaux, she felt she graduated, so to speak, to a different level of colleagues, a place where she began to blossom as a creative.
There are regular debates in the food media sphere about tasting menus, their value, their level of exclusivity or sustainability, etc. And yet, when thinking about them as exhibitions or art, as Mar often does, she makes a point worth considering. 'There's food and there's cuisine,' she said. 'Believe me, I love taco trucks and bistros, and there's a time and place for them; they are no less important, just different. Cuisine is art and when enjoying a tasting menu at a fine dining establishment, you are in the presence of art and that's worth supporting."
Mar continues to place cuisine and tasting menus in the same arena as great theater. That such an experience is special, and something you let yourself sink into, enjoy, and trust that the art will dazzle as it is meant to do. 'I see La Traviata every season,' Mar explained. 'It is my favorite opera. I know the production changes every year, but I just go, and trust, and enjoy the art."
Chef Angie Mar wants Le B. to be seen in the same way. A place where you watch art in motion and on the plate. A theatrical, culinary performance that will definitely leave a mark.
--Le B. has been featured in three episodes of 'And Just Like That,' off-shoot of 'Sex in the City'
--As part of the James Beard Award Winning G.O.A.T. Series for MasterClass, in 2024 Chef Mar showed the world the process of creating her iconic Le Burger.
--Chef Mar has earned a coveted Four Stars from Forbes
--Esquire's 50 Best Bar Program
--2019 Mar's book Butcher & Beast, One of the best cookbooks of the year, New York Times Book Review
--2017 Food & Wine Best New Chef
