Pastis ★9.3

Pastis: The Brasserie That Built a Neighborhood, Back at the Stove

Few New York restaurants can claim they changed a zip code. When Keith McNally opened Pastis in 1999, the Meatpacking District still smelled of its trade; his all-day French brasserie turned the cobblestones into a destination. Reborn in 2019, it once again serves onion soup and steak frites to a room that never seems to exhale.

The History

The original Pastis ran from 1999 to 2014, became a fixture of the Sex and the City era, and closed when the rent went vertical — with McNally vowing to bring it back. He kept the promise in June 2019, partnering with Philadelphia restaurateur Stephen Starr to rebuild it steps from the original site. Both men insisted it would not be a replica, only reminiscent — a brasserie channelling pre-war Paris with a New York pulse.

What to Order

The kitchen works the canon with conviction: onion soup gratinée that appears on every menu from breakfast to brunch, escargots in garlic-parsley butter, moules frites, and a steak frites family that runs from the bar steak with maître d’hôtel butter to entrecôte béarnaise and filet au poivre. The cheeseburger à l’américaine — a double — is the sleeper hit the critics keep recommending; duck confit, trout amandine and chicken paillard round out the classics. Daily plats du jour are handwritten on the antique mirrors. Finish with profiteroles or the sticky toffee pudding.

The Space

A faithful evocation of the original: curved zinc bar clad in white subway tile, mosaic floors, café chairs, globe lights and acres of deliberately aged mirror — all bathed in the warm yellow glow McNally rooms are famous for, light engineered to flatter everyone in it. It’s bigger and louder than the first Pastis; sidewalk tables catch the Meatpacking parade near the Whitney Museum and the High Line’s southern steps.

Who It’s For

Brunch socialites, francophiles who like their bistros loud, people-watchers, post-gallery diners — and anyone nostalgic for the era when this room was the centre of downtown.

Good to Know

Do I need to book? For dinner and weekend brunch, yes — mid-afternoon and the bar are the realistic walk-in windows.

What’s the essential order? Onion soup gratinée, then steak frites with béarnaise — the two dishes the room was rebuilt around.

Is breakfast served? Yes — weekday mornings, in proper Parisian all-day-brasserie fashion, then straight through to late dinner.

How late does it run? Dinner stretches toward midnight at the weekend — useful in a neighborhood that peaks after dark.

Can I sit outside? In warm months, yes — the sidewalk tables are prime people-watching real estate.

Opening hours