‘Top Chef France’ Winner’s NYC Restaurant Has Already Flipped Into a Totally New Thing

Top Chef France season three winner Jean Imbert’s French restaurant Encore — which opened in Meatpacking late last year — has already been replaced with a new American brasserie following a brief and mysterious closure.

Given the restaurant’s size and location, owner Eric Cerato and Imbert decided it needed to go in “a different direction,” a spokesperson tells Eater. A new restaurant called the Meatpackers will be taking Encore’s place next week, pivoting to American fare with a menu focused on seafood, meat, and vegetables rather than the playful French fare that was originally planned for the spot.

Imbert is no longer involved, and now another French chef with Michelin cred is on board: Richard Farnabe, who was working at shuttered French restaurant Picholine when it earned two Michelin stars, will bring fine-dining experience from time spent at Daniel, plus a slew of upscale places in France.

He is behind the new menu, which will include steaks, seafood entrees like roasted salmon and lobster mac and cheese, and a raw bar. For brunch, standard fare like matcha french toast, eggs Benedict, and a smoked salmon bagel are added.

The restaurant at 1 Little West 12th St., between Gansevoort Street and Ninth Avenue, opened last November as Encore but closed in January for “minor interior construction work,” Eater was told at the time. The new iteration opens Monday, February 4, and its dinner hours will be from 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. daily, and on Saturdays and Sundays, brunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.