Angie Mar Segues Her French Restaurant Into Something New

Angie Mar has closed Les Trois Chevaux — her luxurious, ultra-French restaurant in the West Village — for now. Over the past few weeks, she has revamped the interior and has changed the name to Le B, a restaurant “with more of a downtown feel” the New York Times reports.

Le B — opening for dinner on September 22 at 283 W. 12th Street, near Eighth Avenue — is a reference to the Beatrice Inn, the nearly 100 year-old restaurant and scenester clubhouse where Mar honed her style of cooking 15 years (and was the owner along the way). She says it will “capture the energy” of the original — for a crowd that’s grown up. Comparing Les Trois Chevaux and Le B, she says it’s “darker, sexier, fun.”

Meanwhile, Mar isn’t done with Les Trois. She’s taking its breathtaking Waldorf Astoria chandelier and packing it up to a TBD uptown location that would open next fall. “The more we cooked, the more we realized Les Trois Chevaux is the perfect neighborhood restaurant for uptown,” Mar says. And once that was on the table, the discussion was, ‘What does [this place] look like? ‘“

As it turns out, the downtown Mar spot looks a bit looser, without the dress code of Les Trois Chevaux. Even with Le B’s Beatrice Inn reference, Mar maintains it’s not a return to the former restaurant she inherited. “It’s a reflection of how I grew up in the ’80s and ’90s,” with dishes that nod to her hometown Seattle, with Pacific Dungeness crab in her take on a Wellington ($68); the controversial bird’s nest soup, but this one with foie gras, bok choy, and hazelnut; or a fancier take (with a souffle spin) on the French onion dip that just about any ’80s kid came across in their youth.

William Hereford/Le B

William Hereford/Le B

The menu reads more playful than past Angie Mar restaurants: The deviled egg “en chemise” is served whole, ensconced with truffle chaud froid, with the filling piped inside. The sturgeon Charlemagne, with smoked sturgeon, creme fraiche, and obsidian caviar arrives in a presentation that’s the layers of Lady M meets Russ and Daughters, she says. And yes, there will be trolleys for more than one dish. Some of those dishes will be served on Mikasa dinnerware from the era.

One of the biggest differences between the Beatrice Inn and Le B is that it’s not a den of meats. Sure, there will be an aged rib steak — Steak Angelene (around $190, serves two), that she refers to as “a Saturday night steak”. And there’s prime rib on the menu. Yet the most literal nod to the Beatrice Inn is that exact $38 burger is back — an eight-ounce patty of 90 percent, 45-day aged rib-eye, with red wine caramelized onions and fromage d’affinois on a brioche bun — with one burger for each of nine bar seats, per night, walk-in only. She says, “It’s literal nostalgia.”