French Bistro Pierre Lapin Closes After More Than a Year in the West Village

Chef Harold Moore’s classic French restaurant Bistro Pierre Lapin has closed after over a year in the West Village. The all-day restaurant, located at 99 Bank St., between Hudson and Greenwich streets, opened in May 2018, a project between the former Commerce chef and co-owner and pastry chef Julia Grossman.

The restaurant was unusual in its commitment to traditional French dishes and wine, such as vichyssoise, blanquette de veau, and Burgundy wines. That dedication to a style that eschews trends ultimately earned it one star from the Times, where critic Pete Wells found charm in its “rich, creamy, antique cooking.”

But Moore says that the cost of running the restaurant became too much, adding that “restaurants are in crisis in this city.” “Pierre Lapin was largely self funded, and we could no longer keep pumping money into the place,” he writes in an email, blaming rising costs, fees, and wages, as well as a declining number of customers, for the closure. “But we went out on a high and had a great last night with our regulars.”

The chef rose to the scene while at Commerce, a restaurant that closed in 2015 following a landlord struggle. He returned with Harold’s Meat + Three, which is still open but pivoted into being a broader American restaurant called simply Harold’s last fall.

He was also briefly involved with Greenwich Grille, an American restaurant that closed last January.