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Eater
31-07-2025
- Business
- Eater
NYC's Luxury Dessert Scene Is Booming and Higher Priced Than Ever
At Le Chêne in the West Village, a refined French restaurant that opened in May, dessert comes in the form of a double-handled aluminum baking pan, still warm from the oven and oozing with fresh fruit and baked custard. The oversized dish is their off-menu clafoutis — served with apricots and lavender or cherries, depending on the season — set atop a folded towel on a plate, accompanied by a side of goat's milk ice cream. It's rustic yet traditional, familiar with a twist, gooey in the center with crispy edges, and costs $28 — a dessert price once unheard of on restaurant menus. Much like the $26 'boozeflation' cocktails that have now become standard around the city, entree-sized prices have come for the final frontier of the menu: desserts. It's the $30 meringue with rhubarb at Sailor in Fort Greene or the $39 strawberry cobbler with chamomile ice cream at Stissing House, an upstate destination. But there's more to it than just an outrageous price tag. As restaurants try to stay afloat amidst the rising cost of, well, everything, outsized, high-priced desserts have become a way to stand out. Even as New York's bakery scene flourishes, fewer restaurants are investing in full-time pastry chefs — and those that do increasingly expect those hires to justify their cost with splashy, high-return creations. King Restaurant in SoHo, serving British, Italian, and French-inspired seasonally-driven food, has long been one of the progenitors of modern large-format desserts in New York, before it 'was a trend,' says pastry chef Fiona Thomas. (Lately, it serves a berry pudding, made with brioche, macerated berries, and rosé for $42.) Increasingly, showstopping desserts that surprise and delight are just one more way to bring in more business, whether it's tableside service or larger portions, and set a restaurant apart in a crowded dining landscape. West Village restaurant Zimmi's serves a Far Breton with Armagnac-soaked prunes and crème frâiche ice cream for two at $30, inspired by chef Maxime Pradié's 'family table' in France. Under pastry chef Clodagh Manning, Pradié says the desserts have 'an element of food anthropology,' as it relates to their sharing size. 'I think people really enjoy the interactive element of a large-format dessert,' he says. 'It has a little bit of a cross-pollinating effect too, where people see this larger thing in the dining room and want that.' At Cafe Carmellini, the cherries jubilee for two is $29. Executive pastry chef Jeffrey Wurtz says it's 'an old school, fun presentation, where the servers come out to the table and do a little show where they light it on fire, so there's a nice flame element to it… If people are going out and spending money, they want the full experience.' In Wurtz's view, those kinds of head-turning desserts require dedicated staff. 'I think it's really hard for restaurants that don't have pastry teams to produce really good, elevated pastry desserts,' says Wurtz. 'I would almost rather not have dessert, because why send something out that you wouldn't be proud of?' The clafoutis at Le Chêne. Alexia Duchêne, chef and owner of Le Chêne, says they sell about 12 to 14 large-format clafoutis per night, which amounts to about 25 percent of customers. Diners 'enjoy the fact that we are serving a traditional dessert with a twist,' she says. 'It is fun and playful, and dessert should be generous and decadent, so it totally makes sense that people are leaning toward larger format desserts.' One point to keep in mind is that often, many of these desserts are meant for two. A 'higher priced dessert makes sense if the price doesn't exceed what two individual desserts would cost,' says Duchêne. (The menu makes sure to list it as a shared item to assuage potential sticker shock.) 'I love them, but it needs to stay reasonable in terms of pricing.' Size isn't always the differentiating factor in higher dessert prices. At the Dynamo Room in Midtown, a chocolate tart is $34.95 because of a caviar dollop. 'It's definitely a bit of a splurge, and the pairing is unusual by U.S. standards, but people order it and are pleasantly surprised,' says Jaime Young, co-founder at Sunday Hospitality. It's the most expensive dessert across their group, which also oversees the restaurants at the Hotel Chelsea. While the caviar add-on might be an upsell, the restaurant can get away with it due to being one of the only full-service spots to ball out after a Knicks win at nearby Madison Square Garden. However, MSG ticket holders tend to come and go quickly, the restaurant admits, and they're looking to see whether those diners will stay for a splurge-y finish as the events amp up in the fall. Still, some chefs see the oversized hit of sweetness as a respite for everything going on in the world. 'Desserts offer joy and pleasure, and a celebratory moment,' says Thomas of King restaurant. 'I think people are really happy to have those special little moments in their day that they're sharing with others around a table.'
Eater
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
Le Chêne Is the West Village's Next High-End Date-Night Destination
Le Chêne transports diners into a wonderland of contemporary Parisian dining. Having opened on Carmine Street last month, it comes from Alexia Duchêne, a 29-year-old Paris-born chef who burst onto the French culinary scene by reaching the semifinals of that country's version of Top Chef at the tender age of 23. Her experience includes having worked in Passerini and Taillevent in Paris, Frenchie in London, and Margot in Brooklyn, where she was the opening chef. Her husband, Ronan Duchêne Le May, a former Cafe Boulud maître d', runs the front of the house. What the duo has achieved here is impressive: The art-filled, 50-seat space is intimate yet lively, and the food and drinks are revelatory. Le Chêne is still in its infancy, but it seems already to be on its way to becoming Manhattan's next destination restaurant. The vibe: Upon passing through the yellow door, my dining companion and I are greeted by the host in front of the small, semi-circular bar, and then whisked past a display of orchids and into the cozy dining room designed by Fred Interiors. Jazzy French pop music is playing at a comfortable volume on the stereo, and at 5:30 p.m. on a sunny Thursday. We're seated by the window, my companion on the side with the red banquette. On the windowsill behind her aligns a collection of empty bottles that once contained expensive French wines. On the walls, there are Art Deco sconces and Basquiat and Warhol lithographs. The art is courtesy of Christophe Van de Weghe, an investor in the restaurant and the owner of the Van de Weghe gallery on the Upper East Side. Art extends to the menus, which are decorated with watercolor-style drawings of snap peas and radishes. The food: The cuisine is somewhat lighter than at, say, La Veau d'Or, and it's served a la carte, but beware: If you fail to restrain yourself when ordering, it's easy to leave here with your stomach as full and your wallet as empty as if you'd done a full-scale tasting menu. First up is a plate of complimentary fresh bread from Yann Ledoux's Bread Story, served with a smear of fragrant butter redolent of marjoram, honey, and sea salt. The menu starts with a selection of amuse-bouches, all of which are served by the individual piece except for the shareable green bean beignets ($18). Those beans are fried in a light tempura butter and come with a coupe of creamy tarragon sauce. I also ordered a piece of uni French toast ($25), a finger of grilled brioche generously topped with Japanese uni, drips of bone marrow, and a lightly roasted pepper sauce. For a party of two, I would recommend ordering two appetizers.. Duchéne's take on the bistro classic mayonnaise ($25) playfully evokes a tuna melt. The soft-boiled eggs are accompanied by bits of tuna tartare, cornichons, and a light mayo that shines bright green thanks to an emulsion of parsley, topped with thinly sliced toast crusted with Mimolette cheese. A brick of decadent foie gras($28) is mortared with strips of wagyu beef tongue and comes with two thick pieces of toasted brioche and a scoop of sea buckthorn rich crab thermidor ($41), a show-stopper served in a crab back, is pleasantly pungent with vadouvan. The one dish we found a tad underwhelming was the yellowtail crudo ($27) with pine nuts, candied raisins, and walnut sauce; the flavors didn't sing as they did in other dishes. For entrees, there was one seafood (halibut with scallop quenelle) and one meat option (lamb saddle), along with a couple of steak specials, including a massive côte de boeuf. It's hard to resist something marked in bold as the 'spécialité de la maison,' so we ordered the pithivier terre y mer. As the name indicates, Duchéne puts a surf-and-turf spin on the traditional puff pastry, stuffing it with slices of potatoes gratin, a hefty curl of pork farce, and fillets of smoked eel; it's served with a small wedge cut out of it — as if a Disney character in the kitchen had cut a little slice and taken the rest to plate it — and garnished with a crown of lettuce leaves and a dollop of beetroot ketchup. Dessert ranged from a chocolate tart and a blanc manger to a rhubarb sorbet. My companion opted for the sorbet, while I ordered a Trou Normand — a scoop of apple and dill sorbet with Calvados poured over it — from the dessert cocktails list. Duchêne came out of the kitchen to do the honors of pouring the Calvados herself. The service: The front-of-house staff, many of whom have French accents, are high-touch and friendly, with nary a hint of stuffiness. When my companion ordered an off-menu cocktail, the bartender came over personally to ask her for more details. Tips: Le Chêne is booked out weeks in advance on Resy, but the restaurant has been releasing a few additional tables each day. Check in the morning, and you should have a shot at getting a day-of reservation. And there's a decent chance of snagging a bar seat if you get there before 7 p.m. Once you're inside, take a look at the wine list, which is expansive (44 pages) and features gems such as a 1959 Château Haut-Brion. If you're going by the glass — if, say, your companion really likes martinis, or you don't want to spend four figures on a Bordeaux that's older than you are — don't hesitate to talk to the sommelier, who sets aside a few interesting off-list things for by-the-glass pours. I had a Domaine Jérôme Forneret white Burgundy ($37) from the Côte d'Or village of Saint-Aubin, an elegant, mineral wine that paired beautifully with the crab thermidor. I'll be dreaming about that combination for weeks to come. See More: NYC Restaurant News Scene Report
Forbes
30-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Le Chêne Brings Cozy Chic Parisian Dining To The West Village
A new French restaurant on Carmine Street adds an extra touch of charm to the West Village. Le Chêne, which opened on May 23, marks the first solo project from chef Alexia Duchêne (previously of Margot, Frenchie in London, Passerini and Taillevent in Paris), and her husband Ronan Duchêne Le May (previously of Café Boulud). Duchêne, a semi-finalist on Top Chef France, envisioned the restaurant as a fresh take on French fare, with a New York City twist. 'We really thought of Le Chêne as the restaurant we dream of going to, a place where the food is centered about amazing ingredients cooked simply with an elegant platting,' said Duchêne. 'We like places that have this cozy Parisian chic atmosphere but doesn't feel like its overly designed, white tablecloth, nice lighting, cozy banquettes for comfort, amazing art and a tailored playlist to bring some fun to the evening.' Le Chêne's menu focuses on recreating traditional French dishes with local, seasonal New York ingredients anda. bit of extra Manhattan-specific flare. Currently, Duchêne is channeling her love for market shopping at the Union Square Greenmarket, where she's partial to the herbs, summer squash and peas. Later this summer, she looks forward to fresh sumac, to infuse stocks with for an unexpected sour note. Green Bean Beignets at Le Chene Andrew Bui 'Le Chêne will bring a different vision of French food, something a bit more Parisian, bringing back old school dishes but with a modern touch," Duchêne said. "We also focus on sauce a lot and for me that is what makes a good dish, sauces are addictive and I can't wait to show what we can do in this department.' The menu, which is serve ala carte starts with snack-style amuse-bouches including a sweet shrimp tartlette with crème fraiche, maple, and shiso; uni French toast topped with roasted pepper cream and bone marrow; and crispy but light green bean beignets served three to an order with tarragon sauce. Appetizers include Foie Gras Lucullus, Duchêne's take on foie terrine inspired by her time in Copenhagen with toasted brioche and sea buckthorn gelée; oeuf mayonnaise with confit tuna and mimolette cheese, an homage to the tuna melt, one of Alexia's favorite NYC dishes; and crab thermidor in a creamy vadouvan sauce. Halibut and scallop quenelle at Le Chêne Andrew Bui Larger Main Courses include halibut and scallop quenelle with dry-aged halibut topped with caramelized onions and sauce vin jaune, an iconic French sauce dear to Duchêne; lamb saddle, served with summer squash, huckleberry and mint sauce; and Pithiviers terre and mer, served on an elegant platinum-trimmed Bernardaud porcelain plate, is a riff on surf-and-turf, with puff pastry layered with potato gratin, pork and smoked eel, and a side of vinegary crisp green salad and beetroot - a staple during Duchêne's time working in France and during her residency at Fulgurances. 'It's something that takes a lot of time, and truly shows what French food is to us: craft, great sourcing and decadence,' she said. One the side, many potatoes, including French fries; patates gratinées, using Chef Joël Robuchon 1980s era recipe; and seasonal greens. Desserts include tarte au chocolat, with cocoa nib and maple potato ice cream; rice pudding, Duchêne's father's favorite dessert, made with mango caramel and toasted buckwheat; and a sundae d'été, made with goat milk, macerated strawberries, honey and sweet peas, round out the menu. With the check, come complimentary sour huckleberry pâtes de fruits. Inside Le Chêne Andrew Bui 'For us the perfect restaurant is a the perfect blend of great food, an amazing wine list and a cozy ambiance and that was really our only focus for Le Chêne, to show our version of hospitality as two French people living in NYC and wanting to bring a piece of home in the vibrant city," said Duchêne. 'We want guests to feel seen and understood, the experience at Le Chêne will be focused on attentive service, a tailored wine pairing, fun and playful food as well and just having a good time. We take our jobs seriously but not ourselves and we don't want this restaurant to feel pretentious. We believe in a laid back fun setting with amazing food and wine, people want that, we want that ourselves and that is what we will be offering.' Le Chêne is open at 76 Carmine St., Tuesday - Saturday from 5pm to 10pm with reservations available via Resy. Bar seats will be reserved for walk-ins from 5-7pm. The restaurant will open for lunch on the weekends in the coming months.
