A high-profile French chef will soon bring his first New York restaurant to Park Avenue, accelerating the boom in high-end restaurants setting up shop in premier office towers.
Michelin-honored Cyril Lignac signed with Rudin for his first Bar des Pres in New York at 345 Park Ave. at East 52nd Street. The French-East Asian eatery will be one of three “concepts” by Lignac in 22,000 square feet of ground-floor space at street level, to open in 2027.
His arrival brings the 1.9 million-square foot tower into the world-class East Side culinary league that includes nearby 425 Park Ave., home to Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Four Twenty Five; The Grill in the Seagram Building; and 550 Madison Ave., where Simon Kim’s Cote and two other concepts are expected to open this month.
Lignac, who’s also a prominent French TV personality, has earlier Bar des Pres locations in Paris, London, Dubai and St. Barts. At 345 Park, it will be joined by a contemporary French brasserie and an artisanal bakery/cafe. He’ll operate them with D.ream International, a management group that also runs Zuma on Madison Avenue.
Lignac’s trio include 10,000 square feet of combined dining space, a kitchen for all three concepts and a production bakery.
They’ll bring a higher public profile to the tower, which is home to Blackstone, Loeb and Loeb and the NFL. When football announcers say “they’ll review it in New York,” it means at the Art McNally GameDay Central facility at 345 Park.
The Bar des Pres menu will combine French and Japanese styles. Its design is meant to evoke a chic 1950s wine bar with mahogany accents and a red, blue and brown color palette.
