Catch Hospitality Group’s opening machine keeps running: After Soho’s Mediterranean Or’esh opened — following the Eighty-Six in the old Chumley’s and Soho’s super hard-to-get-into Corner Store — Eugene Remm, partner Tilman Fertitta, and company are opening a new
French brasserie, Cafe Charmant, at 340 Bleecker Street, between Christopher and West 10th streets, in mid-September.
Given Remm’s success with his earlier restaurants, it would be a mistake to bet against reservations filling up before a single review runs, even though we’re at peak brasserie, with restaurants such as Brasserie Cognac, Michael Lomonaco’s new spot in Bryant Park; Grand Brasserie in Grand Central; and the upcoming Brasserie Bouludfrom Daniel Boulud, opening near Lincoln Center in September.
This Bleecker Street space was most recently home to Saint Theo’s, which was there for five years. Rockwell Group, which also designed Or’esh, is behind the room, going for eclectic-but-timeless decor, according to a spokesperson.
The company is upping diners’ expectations much like they did by hiring chef Nadav Greenberg for Or’esh. For Cafe Charmant, it’s Jake Tyler Brodsky, a New Yorker who worked under the late James Kent back in his Eleven Madison Park days, who most recently cooked at Palm Heights in the Cayman Islands for the past seven years. Remm tells Eater he liked Brodsky’s cooking so much that when he visited the island, he suggested they work together. Expect the French genre’s greatest hits — nicoise salad, steak frites — alongside a raw bar and seafood options that push the menu toward the coast.
Drinks come from Catch Hospitality’s beverage director Lucas Robinson, who is behind cocktails like the sour cream and onion martini at the Corner Store, the fluffy margarita at the Eighty Six, and the za’atar highball at Or’esh. Wine director Emily Buse, a Wine Spectator top-50 sommelier, rounds out the team.
This opening reinforces the fast pace at which Remm’s company is opening restaurants. It’s Catch’s fourth New York opening in roughly two years, and each one has landed buzz: Or’esh chasing a Michelin star, the Eighty Six overhauling the Chumley space after the notorious Frog Club; and Corner Store turning into a Taylor Swift stakeout. Cafe Charmant is a bet that the group’s formula — familiar food, a pedigreed chef, Rockwell design polish — travels to a French bistro as easily as it did to a Mediterranean grill and American throwback restaurant.
