French Restaurant Review: La Compagnie Wine Bar, New York

A hip, new French wine bar has popped up in Manhattan, New York

With hotels, restaurants and cocktail and wine bars everywhere – Paris, London, Verbier, Val d’Isère, Menorca, Ibiza, Venice and New York – the trend-setting Paris-based Experimental Group has become one of the most innovative of a new generation of French hospitality companies. Its new wine bar in the hip Flatiron district of Manhattan offers a perfect cameo of the company’s style and approach to wine.

Parisian interior designer Dorothée Meilichzon respected the old New York bones of an atmospheric former tavern with mullioned windows by keeping the exposed brick walls inside and the original oak parquet floor, but gave it a sleek modern look by adding forest-green leather bar stools at the bar with porcelain bisque pendant lamps and cosy banquettes upholstered in nubby brown fabric. The overall effect recalls both New York in the 1920s and an Edward Hopper painting.

As is also true at La Compagnie Center Street, the Experimental Group’s first New York wine bar, almost all of the wines served are natural, organic or biodynamic, and there’s an especially good selection of wines served by the glass that changes regularly. Stand-out pours from a recent visit included a fascinating Pét-Nat Rosé, Barbichette x Compagnie We’re Not Here to F*** Spiders 2023, which is made in Upstate New York, a brilliant Nathan K New York State Riesling, a Ken Forrester Chenin Blanc vieille vignes from Stellenbosch in South Africa and a luscious Ridge California Cabernet Sauvignon. There’s also an excellent selection of non-alcoholic beverages available.

The moreish menu runs to irresistible snacks like dates stuffed with blue cheese and country ham, cheese gougères, and frites with smoked whisky ketchup, and skewers, which include maitake mushrooms with black-garlic glaze and pork belly with rosemary maple glaze and pear.

Main courses are easily shared and include a superb spaghetti with yuzu (the Japanese citrus fruit), scallop crudo with chilli lemon vinaigrette and persimmon relish, and duck with fennel and charred grapes. Charming service, reasonable prices and a great location on the edge of NoMad, the trendiest neighbourhood in Midtown Manhattan, make this an excellent choice for a light but memorable meal.

6 West 24th Street, New York, USA, 10010

+1-917-423-7803,

www.compagniedesvinssurnaturels.com/nyc-flat-iron

From France Today Magazine