Brasserie Les Halles was a French-

brasserie In France, Flanders, and the Francophone world, a brasserie () is a type of French restaurant with a relaxed setting, which serves single dishes and other meals. The word ''brasserie'' is also French for "brewery" and, by extension, "the bre ...

-style restaurant located on 15 John Street (between Broadway & Nassau Street; in the

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) in

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. Previous locations were on Park Avenue South in Manhattan, in

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, Miami, and Washington, D.C. Author and television host Anthony Bourdain was the predecessor to the executive chef of Brasserie Les Halles, Carlos Llaguno. The restaurant went bankrupt in August 2017.

Overview

The restaurant was named after Les Halles, the historic central wholesale marketplace in

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. The restaurant served simple and classic French dishes such as

escargot Snails are considered edible in many areas such as the Mediterranean region, Africa, or Southeast Asia, while in other cultures, snails are seen as a taboo food. In American English, edible land snails are also called escargot, taken from the Fre ...

foie gras Foie gras (, ; ) is a specialty food product made of the liver of a duck or goose. According to French law, foie gras is defined as the liver of a duck or goose fattened by gavage (force feeding). Foie gras is a popular and well-known delica ...

, and

steak tartare Steak tartare or tartar steak is a dish of raw ground (minced) beef. It is usually served with onions, capers, mushrooms, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and other seasonings, often presented separately, to be added to taste. It is often ser ...

, which was prepared to order at tableside, and was renowned for its

pommes frites French fries (North American English), chips (British English), finger chips (Indian English), french-fried potatoes, or simply fries, are '' batonnet'' or ''allumette''-cut deep-fried potatoes of disputed origin from Belgium and France. Th ...

. The original

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location featured a butcher shop that specialized in French cuts of meat. The Park Avenue location was featured prominently in the book '' Kitchen Confidential'' by Anthony Bourdain, who also detailed many of Les Halles' recipes in ''Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook''. The Downtown New York branch occupied the site of the former

John Street Theatre John Street Theatre, situated at 15–21 John Street, sometimes called "The Birthplace of American Theatre", was the first permanent theatre in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York.''The Oxford Companion to the Theatre'' (Fourth Editio ...

, "Birthplace of American Theatre." The

location of Les Halles closed in March 2016. The

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location of Les Halles closed in mid-November 2008 following a fifteen-year run. Owner Philippe Lajaunie cited difficulty obtaining a new lease as the reason. The Miami location is now closed as well. In its 2013 user poll,

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gave its two New York restaurants each a food rating of 21 out of 30. In 2018, Les Halles, though closed down, became a memorial to Anthony Bourdain, after his suicide. In 2022, Les Halles reopened after being renamed La Brasserie, under the ownership of Francis Staub, the founder of Staub cookware. Some iconic dishes by Anthony Bourdain, such as the Steak Frites, are kept on the menu as an homage.

Overview

See also

References

Further reading