Ryan Sutton's First NY Times Review

[MitchW]

THE BRIEF REVIEW:  Chateau Royale

It's brief, it's in a "newsletter" and here it is:

 

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★

By Ryan Sutton

“In the Beginning Henri Soulé begat Le Pavillon and La Côte Basque,” The Times’s restaurant critic Craig Claiborne wrote in 1969, channeling the Old Testament to trace the evolution of our city’s fine-dining scene. More than 50 years later, his sentiments still feel relevant, especially since the old Le’s and La’s laid the foundations for a buzzy newcomer: Cody Pruitt’s Chateau Royale. The Libertine sequel is an enjoyable, if rather rich ode to a bygone era of New York French dining.

Get your high-acid small plates elsewhere. An edgy neo-bistro, this is not.

At this Greenwich Village carriage house, replete with red banquettes and white tablecloths, a dressy crowd knocks back martinis as strong as lighter fluid. And the chef Brian Young channels the ancien régime with cream, foie gras and Dover sole à la Grenouille. He digs up a recipe for lobster thermidor, and the delicate shellfish suffocates in melted Gruyère. He makes a chicken cordon blue that, when cut, spills out Comté like a lava cake.

 

A gumball-size beggar’s purse (at $39) hails from Mr. Young’s old stomping grounds, the Quilted Giraffe. Though it tastes more of crème fraîche than caviar. Better are silky coins of raw Hokkaido scallop, a blank canvas for miso brown butter. And chilled blue prawns pack a creaminess that’s closer to sashimi than shrimp cocktail.

Mr. Young ages his duck a l’orange until it takes on a deep earthiness; a bergamot-laced sauce tames the funk. And sablefish recalls the sweetness of Nobu’s black cod and the lushness of Wagyu, though a caviar beurre blanc doubles down on fatty opulence. Finish off with molten chocolate cake, that old Jean-Georges Vongerichten staple, and feel the cocktail cart trundle by like the subway — the eternal soundtrack of the city.

Address: 205 Thompson Street (Bleecker Street), Greenwich Village; no phone; chateauroyalenyc.com

Recommended Dishes: Hokkaido scallop grenobloise, blue prawns with Espelette aioli, foie gras au torchon, sable with caviar beurre blanc, koshihikari rice pilaf, and lemon tart.

Price: $$$

Wheelchair Access: The entrance is on the ground floor, but the formal dining room is up a steep set of stairs. There is no elevator, but the upstairs menu can be ordered downstairs.

 

Thankfully, he didn't like it as much as we didn't. 

Especially inviting is when your meal starts off with the host mentioning that:  "We'd like you to know - you have 90 minutes to enjoy your experience."  Hospitality at its finest!!

OK, douches, then don't make us wait for our drinks for 1/3 of that amount of time, since I don't order food till I've had a cocktail.

 

[splinky]

1 hour ago, MitchW said:

THE BRIEF REVIEW:  Chateau Royale

It's brief, it's in a "newsletter" and here it is:

 

Thankfully, he didn't like it as much as we didn't. 

Especially inviting is when your meal starts off with the host mentioning that:  "We'd like you to know - you have 90 minutes to enjoy your experience."  Hospitality at its finest!!

OK, douches, then don't make us wait for our drinks for 1/3 of that amount of time, since I don't order food till I've had a cocktail.

 

that's a lot of old timey references all in a row

[Orik]

Those beggar's purses sure get around (with Nish to March, with Kinch to Manresa, and now here). 

[MitchW]

I mean, if we can thank Barry Wine for anything…

(Nice guy, by the way).

[Wilfrid]

I used to really like March and certainly remember the beggar's purses.

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OK, douches, then don't make us wait for our drinks for 1/3 of that amount of time, since I don't order food till I've had a cocktail.

Correct.

[Wilfrid]

By chance, I just stumbled over a diary entry referencing my first dinner at March (August 1997). It records a lobster and black truffle "won ton" (sic). That would have been my first beggar's purse.