Chef Daniel Boulud to open casual French restaurant Le Gratin at The Beekman
Courtesy of The Beekman Hotel
Michelin-starred Chef Daniel Boulud is opening a new restaurant in one of New York City’s most iconic spaces. Located on the ground floor of the Beekman Hotel in the Financial District, Le Gratin will offer a casual dining experience inspired by the bistros of Boulud’s hometown, Lyon, France. The menu will feature classic French and Lyonnais specialties and an extensive wine list with over 100 selections. Guillaume Ginther, former chef of New York’s Le Coq Rico Bistro and Boulud’s Restaurant Daniel, will take up executive chef duties. Boulud’s new restaurant is set to open its doors on May 6; reservations will open on Resy on Thursday.
Photo courtesy of Bill Milne
Boulud’s hometown Lyon is known for its many bouchons, a type of restaurant found in the French city that serves traditional Lyonnaise cuisine and a wide variety of wines. Le Gratin’s food menu will feature classic Lyonnaise dishes like “quenelle de brochet au gratin,” a dish made of pike mousse crusted with cheese in a mushroom sauce. Other iconic French dishes will rotate through the menu on a monthly basis.
“The name, Le Gratin, is inspired not only by the fond memory of my mother’s delicious gratin home recipes, but also the many classic gratin recipes that I learned to make as a young chef. ‘Le gratin’ is also a funny way in France to refer to the ‘who’s who’ of a party and the life of the ‘see and be seen,’” Boulud said.
“From the time I could hold a spoon, I remember savoring my favorite potato dish at home – Le Gratin Dauphinois, and Gratin de Cardons. All along my life, to this day, we make these specialties on many occasions. No dishes remain more classic than these. I want Le Gratin to feel like the perfect place to gather with good friends and to make it a downtown hangout where everyone comes to relax and celebrate all of life’s moments.”
More than 100 wines will be on the menu, with a focus on wine sourced from areas around Lyon, including Beaujolais, Maconnais, Côte de Vienne, and Collines Rhôdaniennes. A smaller selection of wines from places other than France will also be available. Le Gratin’s cocktail list will include Mauresque and Kir Communard, beverages commonly served in Lyon’s bouchons.
Photo courtesy of Bill Milne
The opening of Le Gratin comes nearly two years after Boulud opened his most recent New York City restaurant, Le Pavillon. Housed within One Vanderbilt building in Midtown, Boulud called the nature-themed restaurant a “celebration of cuisine, nature and architecture.”
Le Gratin replaces Keith McNally’s Augustine, which closed in 2020 after four years at the Beekman because of the pandemic.
Before there was the Beekman, there was Temple Court, a nine-story red brick and terra cotta structure built in 1883 as one of the city’s first skyscrapers. After it sat abanonded for years, the building was elegantly restored and converted into a 287-key hotel. Next door is the 51-story condo tower known as the Beekman Residences.
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