Short for l’appartment, L’Appart is a hidden restaurant located in The District, a French marketplace located few steps from the World Trade Center. We discovered this place few years ago and could not wait to go back for our anniversary. With 28 seats and an open kitchen overlooking the spacious dining room, this place proposes a unique experience where the term hospitality meets its true meaning: from the moment you enter to the moment you dine, you not only feel welcome, you also feel special.

There, Chef de cuisine Antoine Boulay crafted a seasonal menu with a 9 course tasting that changes on a regular basis. Jodi, being vegetarian, did not feel left out and I should mention that they charged a lower price for her meal as proteins like squab, salmon or caviar were not served. We went to many nice restaurants and it is not often that this happens unfortunately.

We started off our meal with a cocktail. Jodi got a virgin martini that was refreshing, while I had some chartreuse, having seen on the menu that they use this sublime liquor for their dessert. Well, I did not imagine that they would serve me a large quantity of the yellow nectar, that lasted my entire meal, sipping it slowly to enjoy its aroma and herbal flavor.

We then started with a snack that was an english pea soup served over a brunoise of smoked salmon and topped with Calvin pea tendrils and mint. Jodi got the same without the salmon.

The canapés was an interesting dish as one of the components was their interpretation of a classic that we used to eat in my house: radis-beurre, where you simply put butter on radishes (as much butter as you want). The presentation was outstanding as it looked like their put the radishes in dirt that was in fact burnt bread. It was accompanied, for me, by a rillette of confit tuna and their version of carbonara pasta composed of a paccheri pasta that has been fried and puffed, topped with pecorino Romano cream and chopped guanciale. Jodi got the same but meatless.

This was followed by the caviar course that was their take on a tartare, but with the egg replaced by caviar from Petrossian. The veal was imported from the Limousin region in France, finely diced and topped with Migmag olive oil, a Spanish oil with limited production, and topped with the caviar and some sourdough toast. Instead of veal, Jodi got cucumber and no caviar. This dish was prepared table side, the maître D giving us lots of information about the origin off the products among other things.

So, this was before the appetizer, believe it or not! The first appetizer was like a risotto, but where there would be rice, has been replaced by squid. Colorful, the squid was cooked in ink so it had this black color that constrasted with the red of the piquillo pepper coulis and the green of the parsley coulis. Jodi’s dish was made with cauliflower, decorated with the same coulis.

The next dish was just added on the menu and was one of our favorites: it was a porcini mushroom tart that had foie gras in its non-vegetarian version. This was like an explosion of flavors, nicely layered but working well together, the mushroom giving some earthiness to the dish and the foie gras, some luxurious richness.

At that point, they brought us some homemade bread (sourdough and olive) and butter that was so creamy that I could not stop eating it. The lavender butter was surprising, with the lavender not too overpowering, but my favorite was the piment d’espelette, a French pepper from the Basque region in France.

After that was a scallop from the bay of Hokkaido in Japan that was pan seared, and served with a grilled zucchini and an aioli that was not made with eggs, but with potatoes as, as per the chef, this was the way it was originally made. Interesting indeed, far from tasting like mayo but quite good. The scallop was perfectly seared and the zucchini delicious with or without the aioli. Jodi had a vegetarian version of it, where the scallop was replaced by eggplant.

Next was a squab, served with Swiss char and black truffle, lots of it. This was superb: the squab was perfectly roasted, not dry, with a slightly crispy skin. Even with all that truffle, this was the star of the dish, replaced for Jodi by English peas that added a nice color and bite.

Of course, you cannot have a French meal without cheese, so the country bread and the Kalamata olive bread was the perfect accompaniment for the goat cheese from Vermont that they served us with honey and black truffle.

To clean our palate, we had a pre-dessert made with apricot three ways: sorbet, mousse and poached. Refreshing and delicious.

Then was the dessert, a meringue with rhubarb and chartreuse. Fantastic as delicate and not too sweet, with a beautiful presentation.

As we thought we were done, they brought us some chocolate macarons in a nice setting for our anniversary: a card with the menu and a photo that they took earlier supposedly as a tradition. And then, with the bill presented in their guest book, where we left a message, came some chocolate covered corn flakes and coconut called « rose des sables » because of their shape. This was a nice touch, but I admit that I was full at that point!

I am still a fan of L’Appart: this is a true hidden gem that for me deserves more accolades from the industry and should get back its Michelin star if not have two. Everything there, from the staff, the atmosphere and the food, make it an incredible gastronomic voyage to France, even if the dishes are not classic but reinvented.

Enjoy (I did)!

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L’Appart - 225 Liberty St, New York, NY 10281

L'Appart, a unique French experience in NYC, NY

I Just Want To Eat!