Team Behind Le Dive and the Nines Heads to Williamsburg With a French Restaurant and Bar

Golden Age Hospitality — behind Acme and the Nines in Noho, the Happiest Hour in the West Village and Le Dive on the Lower East Side — is opening an art nouveau bar and restaurant reminiscent of a French brasserie, Deux Chats at 1 Dunham Place at Broadway, in Williamsburg, on July 26.

“It’s an old-world type spot,” head of Golden Age Hospitality, Jon Neidich said of the space that was formerly Donna. The menu will home in on small plates and a raw bar with oysters and seafood towers ($85 to $135).

Melissa Hom/Deux Chats

For Neidich, a self-professed Francophile, Deux Chats is one of a handful of overtly French spots from Golden Age Hospitality following the natural wine-friendly Le Dive on the Lower East Side that opened in May. “I personally have been drawn to French restaurants since I was a kid and visited Paris and learned French in school and beyond,” he said. He cites elegance when it comes to European dining and French mealtimes in particular. Stateside, “there’s an amazing marriage between French restaurants and bars and NYC. So many neighborhoods have been defined by their classic French restaurants.”

At Deux Chats, look for details like a painted tile mural behind the bar depicting two cats playing beneath the moon with a landscape that points to the Williamsburg Bridge and the Manhattan skyline. The room is accented by pre-war building details, along with French chandeliers, velvet upholstered seating, antique mirrors, and a green tadelakt bar (a waterproof plaster often found in Morocco that’s labor-intensive to install). The restaurant seats 60 while the outdoor area has room for 35.

Chef Nicole Gajadhar has assembled the menu beyond the raw bar to include deviled eggs with smoked roe, a Caesar salad, marinated sardines, and a lobster roll ($13 to $33). The chef was formerly head of the kitchen at Saxon and Parole and now oversees the menus for all Golden Age Hospitality locations.

Melissa Hom/Deux Chats

French-leaning, stirred cocktails dominate the drinks menu, made with liquor from New York distilleries, from beverage director Ashley Santoro. It includes cocktails like the Deux Chats martini with gin, manzanilla, vermouth, and celery ($16) or the Cher Ami with rye, vermouth, amaro, and maraschino liqueur ($16).

“People have a huge desire to have experiences that take them out of the day-to-day,” Neidich said of why he has backed the opening of multiple restaurants in this post-lockdown pandemic moment. “And I have an amazing team that has allowed for it — mostly incredibly talented women who are professionals with a high level of creativity.”

Golden Age Hospitality, founded in 2012, has opened a handful of restaurants, with managing partner Craig Atlas joining Golden Age to open the Nines, Le Dive, and now Deux Chats. Popular Williamsburg restaurants Le Crocodile and Bar Blondeau, also from the group, are run internally by Wythe Hotel.

Deux Chats’s opening hours will be Sunday from 5 p.m. to midnight, Tuesday and Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., and Thursday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 4 a.m. Reservations can be made on Resy, though the restaurant is primarily catering to walk-ins.