Au revoir to sour memories of the World Financial Center.
When Brookfield Office Properties spent a quarter-billion dollars to hip up the WFC, turning it into Brookfield Place, it put food first — and Le District proudly marches the tricolore into the night-and-day party.
The French-themed marketplace and noshing complex sprawls across 30,000 square feet beneath Hudson Eats, the high-end, grab-and-go floor in the tower, which was previously called 2 World Financial Center.
But unlike Hudson Eats, where spots like Umami Burger and Blue Ribbon Sushi are individually leased, all of Le District is run by one company, HPH — not French, but the local team led by Peter Poulakakos and Paul Lamas that owns 10-odd eateries downtown, including iconic Harry’s, and also manages the Financier Patisserie chain.
Although Le District has been opening in stages since March, it finally came into full flower with the opening, this week and next, of 200 trellis-wrapped outdoor patio seats facing the North Cove Yacht Marina — an immeasurably prettier and more civilized al fresco setting than the one at rowdy P.J. Clarke’s nearby.
The complex’s only full-fledged restaurant at this point, Beaubourg, is a charming, two-star place. But Le District, as a whole, adds a four-star jewel to the Financial District’s expanding culinary constellation, one which will soon boast restaurants by Joël Robuchon, Tom Colicchio, Keith McNally, Wylie Dufresne and April Bloomfield.
There’s also a giant satellite of Eataly, to which Le District has often been compared, coming to 4 World Trade Center. But Le District isn’t as fully French as Eataly is Italian: You’ll find Canadian beef, Ramón Peña sardines from Spain and Canadian-made Nutella. But Gallic warmth suffuses the white tile-walled scene, which flows south from the Winter Garden through a sequence of stylish retail kiosks and tasting counters.
You can spend a lot or a little. Beaubourg’s wine list includes bottles up to $500 (although most are below $100); but a mere $4 buys the cheese station’s satisfying Emmenthal-and-fig spread on a baguette, one of numerous cheap snacks you can consume at tables scattered around the floor in a central “Market District.”
This area, Le District’s crown jewel, comprises distinct boulangerie, fromagerie, charcuterie, rotisserie, boucherie and poissonnerie stations. Best of all are a pair of oval sit-down counters, one devoted to wine, the other attached to the butcher station.
At either, you may order dishes from all the different kiosks, listed on a single menu. The simple but satisfying Spanish sardines, silver-skinned, spineless and olive-oil-drenched, are served out of the tin with coarse sea salt, seaweed butter and toast crisps — a $22 feast to wash down with wines by the glass and French and Belgian draft beers.
Sweet, comfy Beaubourg’s menu affectionately reinvents French classics for New York tastes. You won’t want to miss escargots de Bourgogne, the snails out of their shells amid Le Puy lentils, bacon and bubbly parsley foam — a $15 starter rich enough for an entree. The kitchen’s still finding its way with some dishes but clicks overall.
Retail products include myriad mustards and olive oils, splendid cheese, pristine fish, and meats from Rougié duck-leg confit to exotic-sounding wild-boar saucisson.
Because many items can be found in fancy markets farther north, uptown-dwelling snoots have snickered that Le District “isn’t worth the trip.”
But Le District isn’t for those whose idea of “downtown” ends at Tribeca. It’s for those who have happily discovered what’s increasingly, month by month, Manhattan’s most exciting neighborhood in which to work and live.
Vive la revolución!
