Earlier last week, the French steakhouse bistro Boucherie opened a new location in Gramercy. If you ever stopped by their original location in the West Village, it’s a similar look and feel. The yellow, dim lights that reminds me of a romantic Parisian bistro but this place has a charcuterie counter right off the entrance of the new location.
The cocktails were strong and the drinks are created by head bartender Anthony Bohlinger formerly of Maison Premiere. The Birds of Paradise, a tall drink made of Beefeater gin, Sotol, Bigallete thyme, fennel, beet, lemon and egg white that isn’t sweet and it’s potent. The Boucherie Old Fashioned, a mix of El Jmador Angejo, Old Forester Bourbon, plum, lavender and lemon oil was a citrusy take on the classic drink. Coccinella is a pretty drink of pink gin, Rosé Brut, Mara des Bois and rose water is a gentler gin drink compared to Birds of Paradise and slightly fruity.
For our appetizers, we shared plates of Pâtes aux Fruits de Mer (squid ink linguine filled with prawns and sepia rings), charcuterie (Wagyu beef bresaola, duck salami, Iberico ham and Pata Negra) and the classic beef tartare. All were very tasty and solid dishes.
When it comes to the main courses, we must have beef so we opted for the Côte de Boeuf por deux, a 40-ounce Tomahawk rib eye and two halves of roasted bone marrow. This was a large enough to easily feed two or three hungry people. The beef was tender and cooked to the perfect medium-rare. The marrow was delectable and we needed more bread to slather on the natural beef butter. It’s excellent with the Châteauneuf-du-Pape that’s available by the glass.
The other mains were cassoulet that was good but the beans needed to be cooked a little longer and the sauce dried out a bit when it came directly from the stovetop of the kitchen to our table. The Côte de Veau aux Champignons, a 16-ounce milk-fed veal porterhouse, enoki mushrooms, sweetbreads and veal jus was delicious and I adore how succulent the sweetbreads were. The sides of frites were dangerously good that my entire table couldn’t stop eating them as it was so crispy with a smidge of creamy potato and the sauteed mushrooms I appreciated that it’s not swimming in a lot of butter or olive oil and just let the mushroom shine.
Making it to the dessert course, we opted the profiteroles, crème brûlée, Crêpes Suzette, and tarte tatin. All are classic French desserts and they were overall good. Our favorite was the profiteroles for the delicately crisp pastry and the vanilla ice cream was just sweet and creamy to satisfy our sweet tooth. The crème brûlée was satisfyingly creamy and not too sweet but it lacked the brittle, glass-like caramel surface. The tarte tatin was very good but the orange forward Crêpes Suzette was a touch too sweet for our preference but still enjoyable.
Overall, a delicious dinner and service was friendly but a little slow the staff was slammed with the prime dinner rush. If you want stick with the must-orders of this place, I would say charcuterie, the squid ink linguine, and anything from the steaks/meats menu. If you have room for dessert, profiteroles.
To view more photos of this meal, please view the gallery below or CLICK HERE for the photo set:
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Information:
Boucherie
Website
225 Park Avenue South
(between 18th & 19th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Phone: (212) 353-02000
