Angie Mar has done it all. She’s been a successful real estate agent in Los Angeles, conquered Food Network’s Chopped, and served as the executive chef and owner of the West Village’s historic The Beatrice Inn.
For her latest restaurant, though, she’s sticking a little bit closer to home. “I’m an ’80s and ’90s kid, and I wanted to cook the food I grew up eating,” she says. “It’s been so much fun reinterpreting that food.”
Enter Le B., an ode to decadent restaurants from those decades, when French-influenced dishes like oysters mornay and crêpes suzette reigned supreme. But seeing as this is an Angie Mar restaurant, everything is getting a playful makeover for the 21st century.
Le B. is taking over Mar’s Les Trois Chevaux space in the West Village—the French fine-dining restaurant will reopen in a new space uptown later this year or early next—with a whole new “sleek and sexy,” vibe Mar says.
“It’s a new restaurant that draws on the energy and the joie de vivre of The Beatrice Inn and the technique and finesse of Les Trois Chevaux,” Mar says. “It’s a happy medium between the two.”
Read on for why Le B. is poised to be one of NYC’s hottest reservations to score this year.
Mar’s mastery over French technique is on full display at Le B., but it’s also clear that she’s having plenty of fun along the way. The sturgeon Charlemagne is a Mar original. “It’s like if a Lady M crepe cake and Russ & Daughters had a baby,” Mar says. Layers of smoked sturgeon and crème fraîche mousseline are topped with caviar in what Mar predicts will quickly become an iconic dish.
That playfulness extends to the oysters mornay, the classic cheese-topped baked oyster dish that’s flambéed tableside at Le B. There’s a Chinese chicken salad, but there’s no actual chicken in it, just the essence of roasted chicken. “Obviously it has nothing to do with Chinese cuisine, but it is firmly tongue in cheek and a hallmark of that era,” Mar says.
There’s some good news for fans of The Beatrice Inn (which closed in 2020). Mar is bringing back favorites like the burger (one per diner), which will be served at the bar at Le B., and a version of the Inn’s popular roast duck. Le B.’s will be dry aged, lightly smoked in jasmine tea, and served with cognac sauce.
Shoutouts to the Beatrice Inn continue on the drinks menu. The M Wells is a nod to Biggie and an updated version of the popular Big Poppa cocktail at the Inn—this new gin-and-egg wash version sparkles with gold dust. A manhattan that’s all things Japanese is the 2.0 version of a Beatrice Inn staple; Japanese single malt whisky, soju, mandarin, and oolong tea star in this smoky new creation.
Plus, Mar is particularly excited about a new caviar martini she’s calling Bemelmans at the Ritz. It’s a reference to the famed illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans—he once famously said that “caviar is to dining what a sable coat is to a girl in evening dress.”
“I have always been a lover of history and historical foods, so I thought let’s create an amazing caviar martini that really speaks to that history,” Mar says.
Diners expecting remnants of Les Trois Chevaux will be in for a surprise: It’s a brand-new restaurant. BWA Architects transformed the space with inky blue walls, a new chandelier straight from Brooklyn’s historic Grand Prospect Hall, and lithographs and sculptures, including from Mar’s grandfather’s collection. The chef also brought in Mikasa glassware, a nod to the historic brand’s increasing popularity.
For now, Le B. seats 40 people inside at tables, plus nine seats at the bar. Come spring, Mar plans to add cafe seating outdoors. With the Beatrice Inn’s 100-year anniversary this year, Mar says the timing for Le B. was just right.
“We want to take you to a place you never knew you even wanted to go,” she says. “To have an amazing time in a beautiful place with wonderful food.”
With the frenzy around this opening, bookings are already heating up and tables are likely to go fast—so get cracking on those reservations. Le B. is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5 pm to 12 am.
Tanay Warerkar is OpenTable’s NYC writer and a content marketing manager at OpenTable.
