New French Bistro Has an Old Soul
There is no shortage of French restaurants in New York yet – Simon Oren’s mini-empire of Marseille, Nice Matin, and Café d’Alsace come to mind – but it’s not like it used to be. Back in the day, French food was gloriously rich and heavy, the product of hundreds of years of home cooking in deep pots hanging over fireplaces. Oren’s new restaurant, Cote d’Or, opens tomorrow and draws on the traditional cuisine of Burgundy: coq au vin, bouef bourguignon, pork rilettes, even the truly hard-core cassoulet of snails.