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It’s not easy to get into L’Avenue.
The issue isn’t only that reservations at the new restaurant
at Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan are inconveniently blocked
out from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Physically, it’s hard to access the place.
After 8:30, as the department store is closing down, a secu-
rity guard will point you down 50th Street toward the sole
entrance. A gum-chewing hostess with an iPad then sends
you to the ninth floor. From there it’s a meandering walk,
past a bathroom where the toilets all seem to flush in unison (a
water feature?), then down a corridor long enough for competi-
tive sprints. Finally you’ll arrive at the Philippe Starck-designed
dining room, replete with caramel leather banquettes and vit-
rines displaying beaded McQueen dresses and Valentino jack-
ets as if they were museum pieces (but, yes, for sale).
It would be much easier to wander in after a morning of
shopping, but the restaurant has made the perplexing deci-
sion to open only for dinner and drinks at first. Lunch service,
which was planned to begin on March 4, has been pushed back
to April. Presumably that’ll give Restaurant Associates, which
manages it, time to get the place runway-ready. It isn’t now.
L’Avenue made a promising debut. An outpost of the Costes
brothers’ fabulous fashion canteen on Avenue Montaigne in
Paris, it opened during Fashion Week with Joseph Altuzarra,
Dior’s Kim Jordan, and Carolina Herrera’s Wes Gordon popping
by. Soon after, model Karolina Kurkova and Michael Cohen
dined there (not together). But late one Tuesday in February,there were no recognizable faces in the half-full room—just a
smattering of suits and a family dressed chicly in black. The
6-to-9 p.m. mob must have sprinted out that long hallway.
The French(ish) menu is a random amalgamation of
33 items, not including sides such as too-salty-to-eat spinach.
Starters begin with carrot-ginger juice and ricochet to chicken
spring rolls with a mushy gingery filling. There’s also a dish of
smoked salmon with blini, because fashion. Most purveyors of
smoked fish like to slice it thin; L’Avenue serves it in inch-tall
planks. If you sandwich it between blini, it becomes a slider,
the closest you’ll get to a burger here. Forget trying to find a
salad—there isn’t one on the menu.
Similarly counterintuitive is a main course beef tartare that’s
$25 but still a fabulous deal because it’s the size of a football
and, according to a server, mixed only with house-made mayo.
If you ask for toast, you’ll get warm slices, which is polite but
unappetizing. Would you serve ceviche in a hot bowl?
What’s genuinely delicious are the Pierre Hermé desserts.
This is the star pastry chef ’s only venue in the U.S., and if
you’re smart you’ll order thecoupe satine—a glorious textural
mix of cream cheese ice cream, passion fruit sorbet, and softly
whipped cream—as well as a plate of his famed macarons.
The perfect little cookies are also available at a kiosk by
the entrance, along with modernist poundcakes in startling
hues. These are one of the few items on the ninth floor that
your average shopper will want to buy. (The rest of the floor is
devoted to $225 Gucci baby shoes and gowns for dowagers.) It
seems a missed opportunity not to tantalize diners with a few
handbags or even a Diptyque candle.
What L’Avenue has going for it is its neighborhood. Midtown
is now flush with clubby dining rooms, and not just during the
day when well-paid office workers duck out. The four-year-old
Polo Bar, open only for dinner, is still impossible to get into;
tables at the Grill, Lobster Club, and Pool fill up nightly.
L’Avenue may also profit from the booming restaurant-in-
the-store model, as proven by the eatery atop Restoration
Hardware in the Meatpacking District, where the stiletto
set grabs a burger before clacking out for the night. At the
robin’s-egg Blue Box Café at Tiffany & Co., teatime is a magnet
for anyone with an Instagram account. L’Avenue has a long way
to go before it reaches the caliber of these places—or Freds at
Barneys New York, their most direct competition.
The good news is that the place has nowhere to go but
up. The room promises to be gorgeous during the day, with
light streaming in through windows that overlook Rockefeller
Center. Later this spring, the restaurant will open a terrace
with outdoor bars, which will feature more of the clever con-
coctions from Experimental Cocktail Club’s Nico de Soto.
In fact, L’Avenue has the potential to be an exclamation
point on New York’s expanding Midtown restaurant scene.
With its Parisian pedigree and luxurious hangout vibe, it could
wind up as another important nontourist destination in the
pedestrian-packed neighborhood. New Yorkers will just have
to get used to the long trek in and out—it’s a great way to burn
off the calories from a football of raw beef. CRITIC THE FOOD ISSUE March 11, 2019Saks Fifth Avenue imported
a restaurant from Paris to attract the
stylish set. If only they could find it
By Kate KraderWhen Food
Is in Fashion
L’Avenue displays merchandise in glass cases