L’Abeille Proves Yet Again New York’s Love For Fine Cuisine, Refined Service And A Civilized Ambience

It may not be true in most U.S. major cities these days, but New York has never ceased to enjoy the flow of elegant, serious new restaurants despite the limitations of the pandemic. Just in the past year the city has seen the opening of Daniel Boulud’s Le Pavillon, the soaring Cucina 8 ½ and Brazilian-Italian import Fasano, the New York branch of Tokyo’s Serashina Horii, as well as other recent eclectic newcomers like Frevo and Wicked Jane, all now joined by the enchanting new L’Abeille.

Located on a very quiet cobblestone street in TriBeCa —not one police cars and ambulances traverse —

it is one long room with French windows, a compact boxwood and marble bar and beautiful golden lighting—particularly so now that the days grow longer and the forsythia is in bloom—including small lamps on the tables, wide plank floors, an air duct cannily turned into a decorative element, superbly comfortable chairs and moss green velvet booths.

Brazilian designer Marta Carvalho has done the opposite of what so many restaurateurs and designers fail to accomplish (or disregard)—a room with a very tall ceiling whose baffling makes it wholly easy to converse at the tables without raising one’s voice by a decibel. Add to this the decision not to have music of any kind playing and you’ll feel that this is what civilized dining is all about, not the caco

phony of most modern dining spaces but an oasis of calm where the only sound is that of genial people enjoying each other’s company.

As is so often the case in fine restaurants, L’Abeille’s women patrons enjoy dressing well in such an ambience, while among their male friends hoodies and t-shirts abound, in contrast to the dark suits worn by a very capable staff. They are led by the lovely Satomi Takagi and beverage director John Mckenna, who has stocked an outstanding, if pricey, wine list.

L’Abeille is French for “bee” and a pun on chef-owner Mitsunobu Nagae’s name. He and partner Rahul Saito shared the same belief that New York would adopt an elegant but unpretentious French restaurant of a kind the four-year-old, immensely popular Le CouCou is.

Born in Japan, Mitsunobu moved to Lyon, France, to attend culinary school at the esteemed Tsuji Culinary Institute and was inspired by master chef Joël Robuchon’s cuisine. His first chef position was at Régis et Jacques Marcon in Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid, then Le Doyen in Paris, before joining Château Restaurant Joël Robuchon in Tokyo, becoming a trusted lieutenant at L’Atelier Joël Robuchon in New York (now closed).

There are two menus at L’Abeille: a $180 seven-course tasting menu (with wine $95 extra) and an à la carte menu at $125. Since my wife and I wished to taste as many dishes as possible without both being served the same meal, the chef was good enough to swap from both menus, beginning with pop-in-the-mouth fried balls oozing lobster and béchamel, then a luscious foie gras crème brûleé topped with sweet onion ice cream. I could tell this was going to be a meal special for both its rigorous understanding of French technique and a modern sensibility.

Two kinds of good bread come with soy butter (even better had it not been soy). There was also a creamy disc of foie gras torchon with caramelized mango and a delightfully spicy chutney that went very well with both an Alsatian Pinot Gris and a Chablis.

Next were translucent raw scallops with a beet gazpacho and makrut lime oil, the kind of dish that might well be found at Le Bernardin or Nobu. Nubbins of very tender poached lobster meat in a vanilla dressing with rosemary and nutmeg, a homage to Alain Senderens, who created the idea three decades ago at Lucas Carton. Mitsunobu sides it with gnocchi and a large spoon of caviar. Lobster also is grilled with Madeira-scented croquettes, the just-arrived fat white asparagus and a lovely green pea foam.

I haven’t seen tilefish in a while on menus, and I forgot what a pleasant texture its flesh has, here pan-fried crisp in a ruddy reduction of a bouillabaisse sauce, added to with a fennel puree, potato and lemon, which was a lot for the fish to cope with.

Roast pigeon was perfectly rosy with a skin glazed with miso to give it a nice saline touch and color, lashed with a bourbon sauce, while American wagyu beef of very good quality (meaning not cloyingly fatty) had a Madeira sauce tinged with coffee and a side of spring’s new asparagus.

For dessert we had a chocolate blanc and orange flower blossom with burnt honey ice cream, ending off with cookies and jelly candy.

The Robuchon effect on Mitsunobu is evident in the intelligence of flavor pairings and lightness of the food, even in a seven-course meal. Some of Mitsunobu’s Japanese heritage also comes through, of course, just as Asian flavors have become ubiquitous in French cuisine all over the world now. Open just two weeks, L’Abeille is clearly drawing a crowd with both enough curiosity and money to enjoy an experience that, if rare elsewhere these days, is very much an ongoing part of what gives New York a special cachet. It is a restaurant to be taken seriously without straining to seem anything more than genially refined in its personalized cuisine and carefully cadenced hospitality.

L’ABEILLE

412 Greenwich Street

212-542-3898

L’Abeille is open for dinner Tues.-Sat.