Do restaurants have second acts? For every beloved dining spot that becomes an institution, there are countless more that don’t endure past a certain point. There are countless reasons for this — sometimes it’s business reasons, sometimes it’s due to burnout; in other instances it can be due to factors that are completely outside of the control of ownership and staff alike.
This year, diners in New York City can take in the planned revitalization of Les Halles, the restaurant made famous by its association with the late Anthony Bourdain. A pop-up version of Brasserie Les Halles opened temporarily last summer — but now, the space that housed the restaurant itself is back, now under the name La Brasserie.
A new article at Air Mail explores the process by which the new version of the restaurant opened up — and how the pandemic affected plans for that opening. The restaurant’s new owner, Francis Staub, is best known for the acclaimed line of cookware he founded in 1974.
“[O]wning a restaurant in New York had been a dream of mine ever since I first visited the city, in 1977, on my way to a housewares show in Atlantic City,” Staub told Air Mail. He went on to say that he considers the new restaurant “a real French brasserie created in homage to Anthony Bourdain and New York City.” It’s an intriguing prospect — both when it comes to the food and when it comes to the memories associated with the space.
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