Old-Guard Chef François Payard Joins Growing French Brasserie Karver

Just when it looked like heavily awarded French chef François Payard and his famous macarons would be erased from New York forever, news comes that he’s joining forces with Karver, the mushrooming brasserie and cafe slated to open two new New York-area outposts this year. His new menu will go live this Friday at Karver’s four-month-old Sheepshead Bay location.

While the current offerings are pretty standard (croque monsieur, French onion soup) and sometimes off-theme (red velvet cupcakes), it’s safe to expect minor changes as far as the savory menu goes and big improvement in the breadth of the pastry department with all kinds of tarts, eclairs, and such. New dishes include a housemade terrine, duck confit, and a croissant Benedict.

There will also be customizable sandwiches on many different flavors of bread (squid ink, pretzel, etc.) baked in a fancy and expensive French Bongard machine, supposedly ready to dish out fresh bread every ten minutes. Some of the sandwiches will veer from the French tradition with fillings like barbecue chicken. Expect La Colombe nitro cold brew and kombucha on tap. Each new Karver location will have an open kitchen, local and old-world wines, nice beers, and seasonal cocktails — just like location number one.

Judging from the look of its four-month-old Sheepshead Bay outpost, the decor of new outposts will feature prominent mismatched handblown glass lighting overhead, clean white walls, touches of wood, and custom-made button-tufted leather booths. It all feels very modern French cafeteria.

Look for the smaller downtown Brooklyn outpost to open in February with Payard in tow; the larger Chelsea location should follow some time in March. Take a look at the rendering here:

Photo via Karver

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