Daniel Boulud’s New Manhattan Steakhouse Sizzles with Style
When a master of French cuisine like Daniel Boulud opens a steak house in New York, you know the food won’t disappoint—and that the setting will be stunning. The chef’s latest restaurant, La Tête d’Or at One Madison Avenue, opens today—perfect timing for the start of Gotham’s celebration season. The Art Deco–inflected space is a collaboration between Boulud and David Rockwell of Rockwell Group.
Upon entering the French-American steak house, guests are greeted by a Nancy Lorenz artwork hanging behind the deep blue lacquer of the host stand. The entry’s walls in saturated red are paired with a custom faux bois carpet by the Rug Company. Those colors, along with custom lighting inspired by French brasseries, enliven the ambience in every room.
Through a brass paneled doorway, guests enter into a large barroom with custom blue leather stools around a circular bronze quartzite-topped bar. Seating areas feature red velvet armchairs by the New York–based TRNK and black-and-gold glass cocktail tables, and a banquette in a patterned velvet lines one wall. The grand space, with 18-foot ceilings and walls clad in leather and wood paneling, has views through the oversize windows of the neighboring MetLife building.
The barroom leads into the 120-person dining area where banquette tables are plentiful. (Rockwell says his favorite seat is the back booth with views of the kitchen and the door.) The focal point of this room is a custom metal hood hanging above the wood-burning stove, where guests can see a dozen chefs working at once. The piece, which took six hours to be installed, as it was carefully assembled piece by piece, was created by Rockwell Group from a commissioned drawing by Belgian artist Jesse Willems and inspired by New York architecture, specifically the Art Deco Rockefeller Center. Guests can dine on seafood plateaus and 12 different cuts of steak (there’s a prime-rib cart) served with Boulud’s popular signature sauces on custom blue-and-white china by Bernardaud.
The restaurant also includes a semiprivate dining space, the Wagyu Room, with a horse-shoe-shaped table and closing doors with copper mesh encased in glass, as well as a private space with custom murals. Looking for an even bigger view? Rockwell has also designed the restaurant’s 28th-floor rooftop event space, which takes in the skyline of the city that helped to inspire it all.
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