Michael White & Ahmass Fakahany Embark on a French Flight of Fancy at Vaucluse

It's been over a year and a half since Michael White opened a restaurant in New York, which is an extremely long time for the chef and his Altamarea Group. But now White and his sidekick Ahmass Fakahany are putting the finishing touches on a new French restaurant in the old Park Avenue Winter/Summer/Earth/Moon/Aquarius space at 100 East 63rd Street called Vaucluse. The title is presumably a reference to the landlocked area of the same name in Southeast France. According to Flo Fab, this will be a brasserie-style French restaurant with a few pasta dishes on the menu. Marea's Jared Gadbaw will head up the kitchen.

White has dabbled in Gallic cuisine before at the Riviera-inspired Ai Fiori, but he's never done a full-on French restaurant. Will the menu include a fancy cheeseburger with beef supplied by star butcher Pat LaFrieda? Maybe in the barroom; possibly in the dining room. Good money says there will be some type of elaborate dry-aged steak for two, also from LaFrieda. The bread basket, cocktails, and desserts will probably be better than what you find at most moderately priced Manhattan restaurants, because that's how Altamarea rolls.

If everything goes according to plan, Vaucluse will open this fall.