French fashion-industry-mecca restaurant L’Avenue is joining efforts with eponymous pâtissier Pierre Hermé to create an offshoot restaurant on the eighth and ninth floors of Saks Fifth Avenue in New York.
Just in time for New York Fashion Week, fashionistas and all the beau-monde alike gather to celebrate the opening of an art deco dining space dubbed The Salon and an après-ski lodge for digestif drinks at The Chalet, which together make up L’Avenue’s Saks location. Designed by French designer Philippe Starck (his latest work is at the luxury Brach hotel in Paris), the space is nostalgic of old Parisian hotel while also offering a modern sleekness, and of course, windows facing Fifth Avenue.
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Le Chalet. Photo: Justin Bridges for Saks Fifth AvenueBack home in Paris, L’Avenue, on the corner of Avenue Montaigne, is the place to be seen with a compilation of celebrities and Fashion Week-goers gathering there year-long. After a 20-year reign, it is only appropriate that the restaurant’s first and the only outpost is housed in the fashion helm Stateside, Saks Fifth Avenue.
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Expect more than your typical brasserie fare: the all-day menu is a mix of a French classics, modern creations, and some Asian influences. The cherry on top, obviously and truly, is Pierre Hermé who will take over the desserts at the restaurant alongside opening a pastry shop at the entrance of the restaurant. World’s Best Pastry Chef in 2016 and the first pastry chef to make a name for himself without a restaurant association, Hermé is the father of boutique French pâtisserie known best for his gourmand macarons and the Ispahan dessert (rose macaron biscuit, rose petal cream, whole raspberries, litchi). For the first time, all these and more will be available for New York’s pastry fiends — no matter whether you’re ready to splurge on dinner or just stopping by to cure a sweet tooth.
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The two spaces of the restaurant could not be more different. The Salon is designed in powder pink and ivory tones. Boxy leather chairs and mid-century lamps soften the place to give it a cozy look while a glass partition simultaneously makes it quite modern. One floor down, the ski-lounge for cocktails and light bites is perfectly plucked out of St. Moritz in the Swiss Alps. More leather couches, wood wall and ceiling designs, blankets, and all chalet essentials make this space into the perfect place for a nightcap.
The restaurant is accessible at the store’s street-level entrance at 8 East 50th Street. Reservations can be made here.
