Frenchette

Escargots at the Bar

4 of 5

Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson spent two decades together in Keith McNally's kitchens, Balthazar, Pastis and Minetta Tavern among them. In 2018 they opened their own room at 241 West Broadway, named after a David Johansen song, and cooked what they actually wanted to eat. The James Beard Foundation named it Best New Restaurant in 2019. Staying this loud and this good for this long is a rare trick in Manhattan.

It calls itself a contemporary bistro, which undersells it. The escargots are the classic you came for. The spaghetti with shaved bottarga is salt, sea and chew in one bowl. There is a Spanish tortilla on a French menu because the cooks do not recognize borders, only flavor. The prix fixe listed veal tongue with mackerel tonnato and a poussin à la diable, which is old Paris bistro cooking with a spine. Dessert is a plain mousse au chocolat. Plain is the compliment.

The wine list leans natural, so ask questions and let the staff steer you. Book through SevenRooms and go early in the week, when the room feels more like a neighborhood bistro than a scene. If you land at the bar, order the snails and watch the line cooks work. They are the reason I would cross the city for this one. Pete Wells once ranked it 57th among the hundred best in the city, and I suspect that was a bad day for the list.

Order this: Escargots, Spaghetti with shaved bottarga, Tortilla española, Poussin à la diable, Mousse au chocolat
The damage: $$$
Go: A weeknight, early, with a bottle of something natural
Find it: 241 W Broadway, New York, NY 10013