food-drink -

Eat, Brae, Love

Oh, season of mellow fruitfulness! Resplendent with pumpkins! Bountiful with quince!

Awesome with New York apples.

Add to the cornucopia Braeburn restaurant, opening today in the West Village.

Chef Brian Bistrong and co-owner John-Paul O’Neil, who met at The Harrison, are reaping the fruit of their dreams: an American bistro. The space is warm and comfy: The wood at the bar was salvaged from a tobacco shed (it smells kinda smoky), branches line the windows. The farmy theme is echoed in the wall-long painting of Bistrong’s bucolic Connecticut home. (Why don’t we have sheep in our front yard?)

Bistrong’s food is reliably worth any journey. He’s giving regional American classics a Frenchie twist: quail sausage with figs, rack of pork with prune gratin, smoked trout with horseradish. Don’t fill up on the chive biscuits in the bread basket. You need room for pumpkin cheesecake and chocolate bread pudding.

Splendorous sweetness! Happy are we!


Braeburn, 117 Perry Street, at Greenwich Street (212-255-0696).