Claudette's Second Act
A New Chef, a Stunning Redesign, and a Long-Awaited Return to Fifth Avenue
Carlos Suarez, the restaurateur behind Bobo, Rosemary’s, Roey’s and Claudette, was sound asleep in Italy on a long-needed family vacation when he got the call. His restaurant, Claudette, would have to close. The landlord reported that there was an issue with the restaurant’s venting system – an old chimney that was now considered a fire risk – and the fire department was shutting him down immediately. One day he had a Provençal restaurant in a landmark Fifth Avenue building in the heart of Greenwich Village, the next day, he didn’t.
Two years of renovations and permitting later, he’s finally reopened Claudette at 24 5th Avenue with chef Igor Cabral at the helm. Igor may not a “name" yet, but he’s got the pedigree to make it happen. Cabral grew up in Portugal and moved to Marseille at 16, where he traded his law studies for his newfound love of cooking. (Sounds familiar.) He spent 10 years in the kitchens of Alain Ducasse – seven in France and three here in New York at Benoît before joining Carlos.
For Claudette, he’s doing a Provençal brasserie menu – seasonal home-cooking and classics, dishes that reflect a personal journey through Southern France. “He grew up in Marseilles and is in love with Provencal cooking and that’s been our calling card,” Carlos told me when we chatted. “He brings a level of authenticity to the menu.”
The menu is heavy on apéro favorites – oeufs mayo with bottarga; pommes chips with a towering heap of thinly sliced jambon de bayonne; crisp chickpea socca with fire-roasted aubergine, and a pissaladière is reinterpreted as a dip of deeply caramelized onions and Picholine olives served alongside a leaf-shaped loaf of fougasse — an ancient Roman flatbread cooked in the hearth’s ashes to gauge the oven temperature.
He’s also offering a robust “du marché” section full of whatever he can haul back from the Union Square Greenmarket – fried zucchini blossoms with Provençal filling, and roasted artichokes with capers and mint — drizzled with olive oil pressed by the French actor Jean Reno.
There’s a bourride derived from Cabral’s first restaurant job, where a rather tyrannical chef taught him that every detail matters in its preparation: perfectly filleted monkfish, rich confited potatoes and beautifully braised fennel. Also, he’s cooking Steelhead Trout simply prepared with classic flavors of the region – lemon and picholine olives, a cast iron chicken that might have you off rotisserie, served with leafy greens, muscat grapes, croutons, and a gorgeous Steak Frites glossed with shallot butter and fries with fizzled herbs and flaky salt. He’s also doing a dish I’d never had before – the rustic meatballs from the Ardèche region known as caillettes that he updates with lamb, which his father would cook every Sunday in Marseille.
If you’re into rosé, the bar will be your summer perch. There’s a big list of gems from the region served at the beautiful backlit bar and its adjacent gathering area, set up with custom train-station benches and enameled bistro tables, a welcoming watering hole for friends and neighbors.
After working with his interior designer cousin Guini Suarez of Dekar Design on all of his prior spaces, Carlos was finally confident (or broke enough after two years of waiting to reopen?) to tackle his eighth restaurant on his own. Luckily the man has impeccable taste. I’d love to live inside this restaurant – warm, soulful, inviting, cozy — all the things.
Carlos reimagined the formerly whitewashed space, adding Venetian plaster, Hollywood booths, and warm rift red oak throughout, from framing the dining room to paneling the backlit bar. His most treasured find? The vintage p4 pendant lights, designed by Otto Muller c. 1930. The opaline stepped-glass lamps, which hang above the bar, were the designer’s homage to Poul Henningsen’ s iconic ph lighting range. In the day it’s flooded with natural light, but in the evening it feels more polished and grown-up, a place to tuck in, stay a while.
About the restaurant’s name, and I had forgotten this. It’s named for Claudette Sammut, the Tunisian-French matriarch who left Tunisia in the 1950s to open several beloved restaurants in Provence, including the acclaimed La Fenière in Lourmarin. It was there, in 2014, that Carlos had dinner and fell so under its spell, he asked if he could take Claudette’s name for his next project before dessert had arrived. Her spirit lives on.
Claudette is located at 24 Fifth Avenue, (212) 868-2424. It is open for dinner from 5 to 10 p.m., with lunch and brunch to follow this summer. The 22-seat Flamingo Room, a private dining option complete with its own bar, will reopen come fall. Reservations can be made online at claudettenyc.com, and are also available through the Resy app. Walk-ins are always welcome.
Excited to revisit Claudette — even if it takes me back to 24 5th where my ex (yup that one!) accidentally dropped the AC from our 5th floor window! 🙃 A meal here sounds decidedly more digestible.