Le Chene Is a Movable Feast on Carmine Street

"The thing about Paris is that it never ages - like great cheese, it is pre-aged. Innovation burbles where it finds a foothold, and the city is no more immune to fads than anywhere else (voilà, the squeeze-bottle avant-gastronomy championed by the sages of Le Fooding or the scruffy little caves along the Canal Saint-Martin offering fizzy jugs of natural wine), but the dominant mode remains one of august and justly self-confident history."

"For years, when I covered the fashion industry, I went to Paris regularly and was never not surprised at the way even hundred-year-old institutions still compelled regular visits. I had some of the great meals of my pre-critic life at bistros like Benoît (b. 1912) and Le Voltaire (which started life as a café in the 1800s), where the late princess Lee Radziwill, rising regally from the next table over, accidentally tried to take my raincoat."

"Le Chêne (the Oak Tree) is a new restaurant with an old soul. Its proprietors, the married couple Alexia Duchêne and Ronan Duchêne Le May, relocated from Paris, where Alexia cooked at echt establishments like Allard (b. 1932) and appeared, a bit more modernly, on the French Top Chef. (She also had her own well-received restaurant, Datsha Underground, in the Marais, a COVID casualty.)"

Paris retains a pre-aged, historically confident culinary identity even as innovation and fads emerge. Longstanding bistros and cafes continue to attract and satisfy patrons with enduring dishes and atmosphere. New York favors novelty and rapid change, creating occasional cravings for timeworn flavors. Le Chêne, opened by Alexia Duchêne and Ronan Duchêne Le May after relocating from Paris, embodies an old-world sensibility in a new setting. Alexia's résumé includes cooking at Allard, appearing on the French Top Chef, and running Datsha Underground in the Marais, which closed during COVID. Le Chêne embraces anachronism and offers historical dishes like pithivier.

Read at Grub Street