(Bloomberg) -- When my wife and I moved to New York City 14 years ago, our friends were full of advice (some of it solicited) about the areas where we should focus our search for an apartment. Since most of our friends are foodies, their guidance was predicated less on rents and transport links than the quality and variety of restaurants.
Given the depth and diversity of dining options this great city has to offer, there was never going to be a consensus on the best place to look. But there was something approaching general agreement on the worst: the Upper East Side. The neighborhood options, we were warned, would primarily be overpriced French and Italian restaurants.
But the New York real estate market calls the shots, and the UES was where we settled. And we got used to the idea that going out to dinner almost always meant a schlep to another part of town.
That situation, I am relieved to report, has recently been changing. In the time we’ve lived in our neighborhood, it has grown significantly wealthier and more diverse as well as younger. This has translated to more gastronomically adventurous residents, which in turn accounts for the opening of new restaurants and revival of others that were shuttered by the pandemic.
The past 12 months have been especially gratifying for diner-outers. Late last year, a revamped new Michelin one star, Café Boulud moved to 63rd Street, on the corner of Park. In July, Le Veau D’Or, one of those tired old French bistros we’d been warned about, reopened under new stewardship to great fanfare on 60th Street, off Lexington. And then there’s the recently launched Lungi, with its superbly executed Sri Lankan and South Indian curries, over on First Avenue; the buzzy tavern Nightly’s on Second Avenue; and next door, the Keys & Heels speakeasy.
Up next: chef Harold Moore’s reincarnation of Commerce Restaurant, his late and much lamented West Village eatery, on Lexington and 70th Street. It will be joined by another name familiar to West Villagers, American Bar, which will open two blocks away.
Now comes one of area’s most anticipated openings, Chez Fifi. The excitement is not least because of its owners: David and Josh Foulquier, the brothers behind the two-Michelin-star Sushi Noz, one of the country’s preeminent spots for high-end raw fish.
The Foulquiers are local lads, having grown up on 72nd Street and Park, and both still live in the area, which accounts for their fealty to the UES. When they were scouting locations for Sushi Noz around 2017, says David, “we were incentivized to bring great things to our neighborhood. We felt this was our home, it was our responsibility to make it great again. We weren’t scared to take a dive into this.” Add to that, the brothers saw opportunity for a high-end sushi counter in a neighborhood with a high-net-worth audience.
Now they see opportunity to bring the local crowds to a very different dining experience. Chez Fifi, on the corner of 74th and Lex, is an homage to their late mother, Firouzeh, aka Fifi, and it serves up her favorite French and Basque dishes. The restaurant, which opened in mid December, is the latest in the wave of French dining rooms that, along with French cocktails, has engulfed the city, as diners gravitate toward dressed-up classic cuisine. For it, the brothers chose the most personal of settings: a handsome town house, a backdrop that would not have been economically viable almost anywhere else in the city. Early on, it’s been resonating with the locals, a mix of old and young clientele: the former have a propensity and a budget to dine out; the latter appreciate good quality food and drinks. “We most definitely would not have opened Chez Fifi anywhere else,” says David.
A night at Chez Fifi might start with drinks at the salon upstairs where the decor includes works by Joan Miro and Alexander Calder. (Before he became a restaurateur, Josh was in the art business.) Cocktails are created by mixologist Yumi Nemoto, whose oeuvre includes a concoction of Roquefort-washed vodka, sake and olive brine.
On the lower level is a long dining room with deep mahogany panelling and lots of mirrors, softly lit by vintage lamps. The design, by the women-led Swedish firm Joyn Studio, contributes to a vibe that is equal parts old Paris and old UES. The menu, created by Estela veteran Zack Zeidman, is short and checks the boxes for a classic French feast, from saucisson sec, butter basted escargots and omelette à plat to côte de boeuf and crispy skinned poulet rôti. There’s even baba au rhum for dessert. But there are the occasional Basque touches thrown in, namely the txangurro, or deviled spider crab gratin, and a la plancha cooking for the menu’s Dover sole. And Zeidman adds some updates too, studding an endive salad with dates, and basting the chicken in foie gras fat.
In comparison to Sushi Noz, where dinner for two runs into four figures even before drinks, Chez Fifi’s a la carte prices are competitive. But that doesn’t mean it’s an inexpensive place to eat. The foie gras terrine goes for $48, and that Dover sole starts at $110. The former was denser than I’d expected but with a melt-in-your-mouth appeal; the latter was served with lots of butter but not so much as to overwhelm the freshness of the fish. Easily the highlight of the meal was that txangurro, served in its own shell. This Basque staple delivers the perfect blend of the sweetness of the crab flesh with the umami of onions.
A decade ago, on a memorable trip to Basque country (the Spanish side, rather than the French), I ate my body weight in txangurro. Now, I don’t even have to leave my neighborhood.
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