Post-COVID, New York saw a bistro boom that favored a more casual—if still pricey—approach to French food. Restaurants like Libertine and Le Dive led the charge, with the aim of becoming neighborhood hangouts more-so than special occasion destinations. Though concentrated in the West Village, this movement has pushed as far as BedStuy, where recent newcomer Selune slings pét-nats and truffle croque monsieurs in chic, minimalist surroundings.
The tide, however, seems to be turning, in favor of maximalist glamor and unfettered decadence, with places like Chez Fifi and Le Veau d’Or making an argument for the unapologetically bougie French restaurant. Nowhere is this more apparent than at Château Royale, the new dining venture from Libertine founder Cody Pruitt. The restaurateur describes the venue as a “love letter to the golden ages of New York’s French dining rooms,” citing venerated establishments like La Grenouille, Lutèce, The Quilted Giraffe, Raoul’s, Balthazar, and The Odeon as inspiration.
While Libertine’s stripped-back aesthetic and focus on regional French fare (fat, rustic sausages, country pâté, a chicken leg served with its pointed talons intact), Château Royale is all amped-up classics: Foie Gras Au Torchon, Duck à l’Orange, Chicken Cordon Bleu, and Filet Mignon Au Poivre, to name a few. Pruitt describes the restaurant as Libertine’s “more dressed-up, cosmopolitan sibling,” and while his distinctive vision carries through, its evolution is undeniable.
The restaurant, set in a restored historic carriage house, is meant to evoke mid-Century Manhattan and 80s opulence, with sumptuous red booths, white tablecloths, and soft lighting in the upstairs dining room. The downstairs bar might be even more seductive, however, with its dark wood paneling and red marble bar. Reinterpretations of classic French cocktails like the Boulevardier, Bee’s Knees, and Martini (served below freezing) evoke the 1920s heyday of the Ritz Paris and Harry’s New York Bar, and a separate bar menu offers more casual (but still extravagant) dishes like Wagyu Steak Frites, and a hot dog served with sunchoke-celeriac relish, truffle aioli, and artichoke.
Pruitt notes that “stepping inside should make you feel sexier, more elegant, richer, simply by virtue of being there,” and offer “a comfortable, convivial, slightly debauched elegance: a room where you can wear something beautiful, eat something indulgent, and feel entirely at home—if home happened to be a mansion, far removed from the city’s noise and grit.” You’ve heard it here first—extravagance is back in a big way, and French cuisine is once again for the aristocracy… or, at least, anyone who wants to pretend at it for an evening.
Catherine Rickman is a writer, professional Francophile, and host of the Expat Horror Stories podcast. She is currently somewhere in Brooklyn with a fork in one hand and a pen in the other, and you can follow her adventures on Instagram @catrickman.
