Paris in New York
Beverly Stephen
Posted: December 17, 2009
New York City-There were ingenues who sampled French onion soup for the first time and fantasized they were in Paris. There were habitués who poured out of Studio 54 in the wee hours and steadied themselves with steak-frites. There were children who came to Sunday brunches with their parents. And now they are sharing their memories-where else?-on a Facebook page created by the Brasserie to celebrate its 50th birthday.
Things have changed since this restaurant was credited with introducing the concept of a brasserie to New York City. Brasserie fare is now as commonplace as Chinese take-out. The Mad Men and their Martinis are relegated to a TV series. Plenty of downtown joints keep late hours so there's no longer a need to stay open 24/7. And, of course, the Internet has changed everything.
"Brasserie has become a more serious restaurant since the early days when great emphasis was placed on breakfast and late night," says Nick Valenti, CEO of Patina Restaurant Group, which currently owns Brasserie. (Restaurant Associates, the original owner, now only does foodservice and B&I.) "There was a 40 seat counter. We didn't have a bar. It was busy at breakfast and lunch but not at dinner."
The restaurant was closed down in 1995 after a fire and reinvented in 2000 by the stylish architects Diller & Scofidio. It was reborn with a cool modern design, a dramatic glass staircase, and a sleek bar that stretched its length. "We became more of a destination for dinner," Valenti says.
Executive chef Luc Dimnet mixes modern dishes with classic Brasserie favorites such as the onion soup, croque monsieur, and moules frites. Some of their promotional materials for the anniversary included menus from days gone by when prices were surprisingly gentle. In 1964 the soupe à l'oignon gratinée was 95 cents. Today it's $12.50. One of their celebrations offered a prix-fixe $19.59 menu after 9 p.m., while another covered five decades of Brasserie favorites from 1959 through 1999 for $95.
"We even brought back the original Brasserie burger," says Valenti. "It's stuffed with Gruyère and served on a baguette."
