Michael White’s Upscale Foray Into French Cuisine, Vaucluse, Has Permanently Closed

Vaucluse — the upscale Park Avenue French restaurant from chef Michael White — has permanently closed due to the financial fallout from the COVID-19 crisis. A spokesperson for White’s restaurant group, Altamarea, confirmed the news to Eater.

The sprawling restaurant, located at 100 East 63rd Street, at Park Avenue, initially closed due to the state-mandated shutdown on dining-in, on March 16. The restaurant group did not provide details on when it decided to pull the plug on the French establishment, and did not clarify if the celebrity-magnet lounge Omar, located within the restaurant, had also permanently shuttered.

White — who built his reputation and restaurant group on fine-dining Italian destinations like Marea and Ai Fiori — branched out with a brasserie-style French restaurant with the debut of Vaucluse in 2015. New York Times critic Pete Wells wasn’t a fan, however, writing in his review at the time that “a critic could run out of new ways to express disappointment in Altamarea Group restaurants if Altamarea didn’t keep coming up with new ways to disappoint.”

Other critics, though, were impressed including New York Magazine’s Adam Platt, who particularly enjoyed the hors d’oeuvres section of the menu. The Infatuation editor-in-chief Hillary Reinsberg wrote that the “food here is really good.”

Still, like dozens of other NYC establishments, Vaucluse was forced to close as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to historic losses for the restaurant industry.