How French Should a Restaurant Be?

"An ocean of Le and La and L', Chez Whoever and Maison So-and-So, This or That d'Or. If, in a haze of butter and white Burgundy, you sat down to write a parody of the ur- resto for our current culinary Franco-cacophony, you could do worse than to title it "Chateau Royale," a phrase both spectacularly generic and hilariously evocative."

"There's not much that's novel about Chateau Royale, but, to the restaurant's credit, this very much seems to be the point. When it comes to the predictability of the menu-and, indeed, of the over-all vibe-Chateau Royale both plays it straight and wears it lightly. At street level, there's a barroom, moodily dark and intimate; upstairs, in the more formal dining room, ivory-colored walls and a run of windows give the space an airier, more open feel."

Chateau Royale opened this summer in a century-old carriage house just south of Washington Square Park. The restaurant is from restaurateur Cody Pruitt, of Libertine, and his business partner Jacob Cohen. White-jacketed waiters serve classic French dishes including foie gras, escargot, lobster thermidor, chilled New Caledonian blue prawns, and a whole steamed artichoke with kicky béarnaise. The ground-level barroom is moody, dark and intimate, while the upstairs dining room features ivory-colored walls and windows that create an airier, more formal atmosphere. The menu intentionally embraces traditional French-restaurant tropes without feeling ostentatious.

Read at The New Yorker