Frenchette chefs Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson’s partnership seemed destined for superstardom from the start: They first worked together at legendary chef Daniel Boulud’s then newly opened Restaurant Daniel in the early ’90s and found an immediate chemistry that would define their careers and the New York restaurant scene as we know it.
Montreal native Nasr had trained with the famed Michael Bras in France before helping open Daniel, while Hanson began his restaurant career at 14, working with Boulud at Le Cirque before cooking with other culinary superstars like Charlie Palmer at Aureole and Jean-Georges Vongerichten at Vong.
While at Daniel, their chemistry caught the attention of prolific restaurateur Keith McNally, who tapped them to open Balthazar in 1997, the first of several McNally establishments they’d helm together. “There’s usually intimate bonds you make with people at openings because it’s an exciting period with a lot of work and stress,” Hanson says. “That sowed the seeds for us.”
Their mutual love for hockey only strengthened that bond. “We were able to have some beers and watch hockey after work once in a while,” Hanson says.
2018 marked a turning point when the chefs branched out on their own to open Frenchette in Tribeca, and it’s been a meteoric rise for the duo since. Frenchette won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2019 and was recognized as Food & Wine’s Best New Restaurant that year, too. Nasr and Hanson went on to open the glamorous Le Rock at the revitalized Rockefeller Center dining scene, a Frenchette bakery spinoff, and most recently reopened historic French institution Le Veau d’Or on the Upper East Side.
Their restaurants are among the buzziest in NYC, and Nasr and Hanson have proved that New Yorkers will still make a beeline for timeless French Food executed exceptionally well.
Read on for the details on all the Frenchette Group restaurants, and book your spot at all of them on OpenTable.
Frenchette (Tribeca)
Head to this Tribeca gem when you want creative takes on classic French food and a formidable natural wine list. The restaurant was an instant hit when it opened in the spring of 2018. New Yorkers know to come here for soft scrambled eggs with escargot and persillade for lunch and return for halibut with beans and charred cabbage and fish soup with saffron aioli for dinner. Few meals feel as cozy and romantic as they do at Frenchette once you’re seated at one of the booths or at the bar.
Le Rock (Rockefeller Center)
Le Rock, which opened in 2022, has been central to the revitalization of the dining scene at Rockefeller Center. Enter the Art Deco dining room done up with green-leather banquettes and mahogany tables for a next-level meal that’s just as great for a work lunch as it is for a celebration dinner. Expect classics like snails in garlic-herb butter (escargots bourguignons), steak frites, daily specials, and a natural wine list that’s more than 200 bottles strong. You don’t want to leave without an order of the profiterole with buckwheat honey fudge.
Frenchette Bakery at the Whitney (Meatpacking District)
This larger counterpart to the charming bakery in Tribeca opened inside the Whitney Museum in 2023. The menu goes a lot further than the bakery—Think of the airy, plant-filled space as a combination of the bakery and the Tribeca restaurant. That means you can get baked goods like the beloved twice baked pistachio croissant as early as 8 am here and get more substantial fare later in the day like a French onion tart and a tuna niçoise sandwich.
Le Veau d’Or (Upper East Side)
Nasr and Hanson’s latest is the reopening of a historic Upper East Side French institution that dates back to 1937. Le Veau d’Or screams classic French restaurant: dark wood walls, red and white checkered tablecloths, and cherry-red booths. The menu does the same, too. Expect a three-course prix-fixe that celebrates the greats of the French culinary canon like frogs’ legs, hanger steak that you can order with Béarnaise sauce or au poivre, and a luxurious île flottante to finish. Pair it all with a martini or the namesake spritz-like Le Veau d’or cocktail.
“Each one of our restaurants is a really small business,” Nasr says. “That has its own set of challenges, but it keeps us pretty grounded. We’re not this massive corporate entity that can operate in the clouds. We’re very much a part of the restaurant. We feel every decision we make.”
Alexis Benveniste is a big fan of Persian food, sushi, and finding hidden gems she can recommend to her friends. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The MICHELIN Guide, Bloomberg, and New York Magazine. You can find her on Instagram at @apbenven.
