Le Veau d'Or
| Le Veau d'Or | |
|---|---|
 The restaurant's exterior in 2024 | |
 Interactive map of Le Veau d'Or | |
| Restaurant information | |
| Established | 1937 |
| Owners | Riad Nasr Lee Hanson |
| Food type | French |
| Location | 129 East 60th Street, New York, New York, 10022, United States |
| Coordinates | 40°45′47.4″N 73°58′5.3″W / 40.763167°N 73.968139°W |
Le Veau d'Or is a restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, serving traditional French cuisine since 1937. As of 2015, it was considered the oldest French bistro in New York City.[1][2]
Since 2019, Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson (of the restaurant Frenchette) have been the owners, having bought Le Veau d'Or from Catherine Treboux, the daughter of the longtime owner, Robert Treboux, who bought the restaurant in 1985 and died in 2012.[3]
History
[edit]The restaurant opened at a time when many French chefs and restaurateurs were traveling to New York to work at the French Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair in Flushing, Queens, generating new local excitement around French cuisine.[4]
Le Veau d’Or was created by Georges Baratin and Henri Guiget. Georges Baratin’s family owned Les Pleiades in Barbizon, France. Lucien Guillemaud, who had worked with Alexandre Dumaine of la Côte d’Or in Saulieu, France,[5] was the chef for 17 years.
At the height of le Veau d'Or's mid-century popularity, customers included Marlene Dietrich, Ernest Hemingway[6], Oleg Cassini,[7] Grace Kelly[8] and Orson Welles.[9]
In 1968, Craig Claiborne of The New York Times gave the restaurant a four-star review.[3] He called it the one restaurant he couldn’t live without.[10]
Georges Baratin and Lucien Guillemaud retired in 1970, passing the restaurant to Gerard Rocheteau, whose family owned Au Grand Comptoir in Les Halles, Paris. The chef was Roland Chenus from Henri Soulé’s Le Pavillon and La Côte Basque, followed by Gerard Vidal from Lutèce.
The first American to work with Roland Chenus was Sandy D’Amato, who went on to open Sanford Restaurant in Milwaukee and became a James Beard-awarded chef. The other American to have worked in the kitchen was Daniel Leader of Bread Alone.
Gerard Rocheteau retired in 1985 when Robert Treboux bought the restaurant. Robert Treboux had previously created Le Manoir, Le Clos Normand, and La Rotisserie.
In April 2006, "Vive le Restaurant", James Villas's tribute to le Veau d'Or and other old-school French restaurants was published in Saveur Magazine, edited by James Oseland. The essay was later anthologized in Best Food Writing 2006.
On Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Bourdain visited the restaurant, where he was impressed with the breadth of the traditional menu. The episode, titled "Disappearing Manhattan", ran on February 23, 2009.[3]
When the Frenchette team took over, the plan was to reopen in late 2019, after renovations. The restaurant remained closed for nearly five years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and ultimately reopened July 2024.[10][11] The reopened restaurant includes a new upstairs private dining space.[12]
Honors and awards
[edit]In 2011, the restaurant received the America's Classics Award from the James Beard Foundation.[13]
Books mentioning le Veau d'Or
[edit]In keeping with le Veau d'Or's long history as a literary hotspot, the restaurant has received numerous mentions in biographies, memoirs, and novels, and has been referenced in many books on food and culinary history.
Biography and memoir
[edit]- Papa Hemingway by A. E. Hotchner (1966)
- The House by the Sea by May Sarton (1977)
- King of the Confessors by Thomas Hoving (1981)
- In My Own Fashion: An Autobiography by Oleg Cassini (1987)
- Between Bites: Memoirs of a Hungry Hedonist by James Villas (2002)
- Dishing: Great Dish - and Dishes - from America's Most Beloved Gossip Columnist by Liz Smith (2005)
- Rogue’s Gallery: The Secret History of the Moguls and the Money That Made the Metropolitan Museum by Michael Gross (2009)
- Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz (2012)
Fiction
[edit]- Hold the Dream by Barbara Taylor Bradford (1985)
- Fine Things by Danielle Steele (1987)
- After the Fall: An Illustrated Novel by Victoria Roberts (2012)
- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2013)
- Fixers: a novel by Michael M. Thomas (2016)
- The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (2020)
Food history, cookbooks and restaurant guides
[edit]- Knife and Fork in New York: Where to Eat, What to Order by Lawton Mackall (1949)
- Great Restaurants of America by Ted Patrick & Silas Spitzer (1960)
- Bottoms Up by Ted Saucier (1962)
- Hart's Guide to New York City by Harold H. Hart (1964)
- George the Housewife by George Leonard Herter (1964)
- The New York Times Guide to Dining Out in New York by Craig Claiborne (1968)
- The Restaurants of New York, 1987 Edition by Seymour Britchky (1986)
- Best Food Writing 2006 (essay "Vive le Restaurant" by James Villas) edited by Holly Hughes (2006)
- The United States of Arugula by David Kamp (2006)
- Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York by William Grimes (2009)
- The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance by Thomas McNamee (2012)
- James Beard's All-American Eats: Recipes and Stories from our Best-Loved Local Restaurants edited by Anya Hoffman (2016)
- Ten Restaurants That Changed America by Paul Freedman (2016)
References
[edit]- ↑ Sietsema, Robert (January 28, 2015). "10 Old-Fashioned French Bistros to Try in New York City". Eater NY.
- ↑ Tuder, Stefanie (July 16, 2019). "Acclaimed Frenchette Chefs Have a New High-Profile Project on the UES". Eater NY. Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
- 1 2 3 Fabricant, Florence (July 16, 2019). "Frenchette Chefs Will Run Le Veau d'Or, a Veteran Bistro". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 29, 2023. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
- ↑ Spitz, Bob (2012). Dearie: the remarkable life of Julia Child. New York: A.A. Knopf. p. 361. ISBN 978-0-307-27222-5.
- ↑ Allan, Donald Aspinwall (September 1968). "Spécialités de la Maison". Gourmet. XXVIII (9): 6.
- ↑ Hotchner, A. E. (1966). Papa Hemingway. Random House. p. 30.
- ↑ Cassini, Oleg (1987). In My Own Fashion: An Autobiography. Simon and Schuster. p. 238. ISBN 9780671626402.
- ↑ Cassini, Oleg (1987). In My Own Fashion: An Autobiography. Simon and Schuster. p. 238. ISBN 9780671626402.
- ↑ Grimes, William (August 23, 2012). "Robert Treboux, Restaurateur, Dies at 87". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 23, 2022. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
- 1 2 Simonson, Robert (July 2, 2024). "Le Veau d'Or Is Ready to Reopen". Grub Street.
- ↑ McCart, Melissa (July 16, 2024). "Leave It to the Frenchette Duo to Revive the City's Most Storied French Bistro". Eater. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
- ↑ Fabricant, Florence (July 9, 2024). "The Frenchette Team Breathes New Life Into Le Veau d'Or". The New York Times. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
- ↑ Kludt, Amanda (March 10, 2011). "Old Timer Le Veau d'Or to be Honored at James Beard Awards". Eater NY. Archived from the original on August 29, 2023. Retrieved November 23, 2022.