L’Avenue At Saks In New York Is As Swank As It Is Chic With Fine Cuisine In The Mix

Eating places in large department stores have a long history, not least in Europe, where Harrod’s in London, Printemps in Paris and KaDeWe in Berlin are both stylish and exhaustive. In the States, every major store once had a restaurant, some of them quite spectacular, some of them elegant tea rooms for the ladies who lunch. Outside of New York, Marshall Fields, J.L. Hudson, Neiman Marcus, Bullock’s an

d others were all very different, and New York led the pack with highly individualized restaurants in Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale’s, B. Altman, Best and Co. and others that defined their own particular style and clientele they catered to. And there was always attention paid to patrons’ children. I recall fondly one that had a milk bar with Graham Crackers.

Such places lost their popularity as of the 1970s, owing to changing tastes and the slow demise of department stores themselves. Happily, many of those that survived the 20th century have given the store restaurants a true renaissance, none more so than Saks Fifth Avenue, which opened in 1924.

What previously had been a modest eatery on the eighth floor is now a swank Le Chalet café and terrace—Rock Center is across the street—and on the ninth floor is L’Avenue, which in league with the Costes Group restaurant of the same name in Paris has given New York one of the most beautiful and elegant spaces of the recent past, designed by Philippe Starck.

You enter on East 50th Street, opposite St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and ascend in a private elevator to a dimly lighted tunnel that leads around corners to a dining room where you are graciously received by a handful of stunning hostesses and shown to a table, past glass cases of objets d’art in a French moderne dining room done in tones of taupe and caramel, with carefully modulated lighting that is ideal for seeing who’s coming and going, while glowing table lamps do the same for the lovely food and chinaware.

Such elegance I did not expect; indeed, I didn’t know what to expect, believing L’Avenue might be an upgraded version of a traditional department store restaurant. I also wondered who would want to eat there, especially after six o’clock, when Saks closes. Opened in 2019, then hit with the Covid closings, L’Avenue had had little publicity or reviews. (God forbid the New York Times or New York magazine should cover a place so refined!) Yet it has clearly drawn a crowd, mostly young and many quite fashionable. It’s a place where women really dress up, perhaps with the day’s purchases downstairs (there’s a Loubutin boutique adjacent to Le Chalet); male patrons show their own feeble fashion sense by wearing a lot of black t-shirts and dark jeans.

You’d expect Executive Chef Cedric Domenech’s menu to be more-or-less modern French, but there is a good deal of Asian items on it, as well as the ubiquitous burrata. Some dishes, called “classics,” are original to the Paris venue, including vapeurs de crevettes “Lily Wang” ($23), referring to the chef at Hôtel Costes in Paris who first created the dish for L’Avenue. It is a variant of har gow Chinese steamed shrimp dumplings, with crispy shallots and scallions served with chili dipping sauce and a sweet black mushroom soy sauce.

Crispy chicken spring rolls ($23) derive from Thai cookery, served with lettuce/mint wraps and a sparkling ginger-chili dipping sauce. On the French side is wonderfully creamy fresh duck foie gras terrine that needs nothing more than toasted country bread and fine butter. A carpaccio of yellowtail ($38) is a refreshing spark as an appetizer, and Thailand comes back into the picture as a main course with plump marinated shrimp with a pineapple-chili chutney and velvety peanut-coconut sauce ($42). (A little more spice wouldn’t hurt the Asian dishes.)

The classic French masterpiece of simplicity—which takes a lot of know-how to get just right—is Dover sole “belle meunière,” lightly floured and seared in plenty of butter, then deboned and served with a tangy lemon beurre blanc ($90). I can never turn down a dish with fresh morels, and Domenech lavishes them on a bowl of cream-rich macaroni ($34). Blanc de poulet bio ($28) didn’t sound very interesting, but what came was a succulent poached chicken breast enhanced with curry seasonings and sided with sweet chutney.

Pastry Chef Stephanie Oliveira has worked over the “Costes crackers cheesecake” of Paris, using slightly salty French LU Tuc butter crackers, first made in 1846, in place of the usual Graham Cracker in the crust, then finishes it with a fromage blanc ice cream. Also recommended are her vanilla tart ($16) with poached rhubarb, strawberries and crème fraîche ice cream, and a raspberry panna cotta ($16) with coconut crumble, raspberries and olive oil sorbet (which is tagged as vegan). Banoffee—a portmanteau of “banana” and “toffee”—($18) is a gloppy British sweet abundant with banana ice cream, smoked caramel ice cream, rum caramel sauce and caramelized banana. The only distasteful oddity was an over-the-top take on Girls Scout s'mores ($19) with chocolate mousse, toasted marshmallow and Graham Cracker ice cream that came under a glass cloche filled with acrid smoke.

The wine list is solidly selected, not huge, with a good selection of wines by the glass ($15-$34) and an extensive cocktail menu. Wine bottle prices can be stiff, however, with some at a 300% mark-up. Good to see a New York State Riesling on there.

L’Avenue has seen a soigné success that has obviously been built on word of mouth and subtle marketing, and if it stays at the occupancy and standard of tastefulness it now enjoys, it should be a template for modernity and chic, in contrast to the tired faux-clubbiness of a place like Ralph Lauren’s Polo Grill. L’Avenue feels like a true night out, with an aerie’s view and a welcome nonchalance not easily encountered these days with such a high level of cuisine.

L’AVENUE AT SAKS FIFTH AVENUE

80 East 50th Street

212-940-4099

Opened seven days a week from 11:30 AM to 10 PM.