15 East@Tocqueville Re-Opens in New York With A Bold New Design And Menu

No chef-restaurateur knows better about the ups and downs of the business than Marco Moreira, who suffered through the Covid epidemic and a fire set by an arsonist in 2021. What’s a guy to do? Rise like a phoenix, rebuilding and re-naming his restaurant, now 15 EAST@Tocqueville, with a bold new redesign meant to resemble a Parisian townhouse.

The building already had a fine 1906 Beaux Arts entrance, which now opens onto a small cocktail bar, then into a spacious 66-seat dining room, once in colors of lemon and gold, now done in shades of aubergine and chocolate accented by rose accents. A lovely fireplace warms the room, tall mirrors seem to double the space, table lamps and chandeliers throw a glowing light on fine napery; an art deco carpet and Venetian plastered ceilings complete the look, which puts me in mind of Restaurant Guy Savoy in Paris, though far less formal.

Moreira, born in São Paulo, trained as a sushi chef, and after stints in New York at Regine’s, The Mark, Bouley and Quilted Giraffe, opened a sushi bar at Dean & DeLuca. After opening the original Tocqueville in 2000 with his wife, Jo-Ann Makovitsky, he was behind the stove, but in recent years has taken over more as an overseer.

The executive chef at the new restaurant is Paris-born Julien Wargnies, who worked at Le Cygnein in that city, L’Orangerie in Los Angeles and Le Cirque in New York before joining Tocqueville seven years ago. He offers three tasting menus: three, five and seven courses ($125/$175/$225)—and a wine pairing option with the latter two. (At these prices there shouldn’t be so many supplements on the menus.) There is also an Omakase Room offering a 20-course sushi and sashimi experience, with seven seats at the counter and eight at tables. You may also opt for sushi items from the dining room menu (with tastings at $95 and $155). The wine list is very extensive, built up over two decades, and very expensive.

Given Moreira’s heritage, experience and wide travel, his menus reflect where he’s been and what he’s learned over thirty years, though he keeps some signature items on his menu—like the sea urchin and angel’s hair pasta alla carbonara, a marvelous dish that is rich and flavorful; grilled Mediterranean octopus with a chickpea emulsion, trout tartare and lobster “Duo” cassoulet; and cured and lightly smoked duck breast with a pithivier.

We were a party of four, so we ordered as many different dishes as possible under the three-course menu option, to which were added three amuses—a foie gras donut that was an immediate alert as to how good the meal would be; beet and goat’s cheese cannelloni; and a latke with crème fraîche and sevruga caviar.

We also gobbled up some wonderful Brazilian cassava and parmesan bread with our cocktails. An assortment of sushi followed containing bluefin tuna and salmon.

The white asparagus season has begun, and the plump spears were teamed with a poached egg and dotted with golden osietra caviar ($25 supplement). Though the portion of fresh duck foie gras was small, it was served in a delectable chawanmushi golden egg custard. There was also a gorgeous spring pea soup with the surprise of a Comte cheese souffle.

Mushrooms and suffused with rosemary and well-aged Parmigiano. The highly regarded duck breast came rare, with mandarin orange, a lovely endive marmalade and the bird’s natural juices to make an ideal coalescence of sweet, bitter, salty and meaty flavors. It was one of the finest duck dishes I’ve ever had.

Black sea bass was impeccably cooked and fleshy, served simply with sautéed baby spinach and a citrusy caper-flecked classic grenobloise. Poached Maine lobster came with forbidden black rice, Napa cabbage, lemon grass and a Thai red curry reduction.

There is a cheese course available ($30 supplement), then beautifully composed desserts like caramelized banana laced with rum on a sable crust and milk chocolate Chantilly cream; poached pineapple with kaffir lime, vanilla bean, coconut lime sorbet; and a flourless Tuscan Amadei bittersweet chocolate cake for two.

Despite those in the food media who contend that fine dining establishments like Tocqueville are fading fast, in fact, Moreira has a tremendous amount of stiff competition, from Le CouCou and Essential by Christophe to L’Abeille and Luthun, among many others. It is the kind of competition, forged in difficult circumstances, that causes them all to operate at a very high level of gastronomy and hospitality while maintaining their own individuality. Amazing as it seems, you’ll never have the same dish at one that you’d have at another. And in no other city in America is that still the case.

TOCQUEVILLE

1 East 15th Street

212-647-1515

Open Tues.-Sat. 5:15-9:30 p.m.