Noir is a Signifier of NY's Return to High-End Dining

Recently, a slew of high-end, high-profile, celebrity-fronted, revamped restaurants and night spots have opened across the city. A list of these from the Nation's Restaurant News references the newly opened Siro’s, a restaurant with investors like New York Yankee Mariano Rivera and Entourage stars Kevin Connelly and Kevin Dillon. Also mentioned is Demi Monde, which is cited for offering a $130 nine-course tasting menu as well as being owned by the noteworthy Death & Co. crew. And then there's the "$10 million face-lift" from Jay-Z at the 40/40 Club. The mounting list paired with the menu at Noir, which opened earlier this week in the shuttered Nikki Beach space, has sparked speculation about whether the city is returning to pre-recession eating trends.

In an interview with Noir's Michelin-starred French chef Jean-Yves Schillingerdining trends and food have become elevated in New York over the past years, and that the mentality that French food and palates are superior is a conception of the past. He asserts, "How do you think [Alain] Ducasse, [Joël] Robuchon, Jean-Georges [Vongerichten] do their own food? They’re traveling, they’re going to the United States, China, Japan, whatever. It’s good for the brain." Whether New York is really on track to return to a "pre-recession opulence" is hard to say, and the interview concludes with Schillinger instead speaking about a change in French cuisine. While New York may be moving towards a higher-end dining style, the French mentality is changing too; "They have to, because if they don’t they won’t be the best anymore. You can’t always do beouf bourguignon and blanquette de veau."
· Jean-Yves Schillinger discusses Noir menu [NRN]
· Demi Monde $130 Nine-Course Tasting Menu [~ENY~]
[UrbanDaddy]