Le Veau d’Or Reopening Next Week

A legendary French restaurant that has been closed since 2019 is set to reopen next Tuesday on the Upper East Side.

Le Veau d’Or, which first opened in 1937, has been reinvigorated by Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr, celebrated chefs who also own and operate Frenchette in Tribeca and Rockefeller Center’s Le Rock. Hanson and Nasr previously opened Balthazar and Minetta Tavern with Keith McNally. The pair also worked at Pastis and Schiller’s Liquor Bar in addition to other of McNally’s establishments, but parted ways with the restaurant magnate in 2013.

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Once dubbed NYC’s oldest bistro, the upgraded Le Veau d’Or will feature odes to the original establishment both in terms of decor and menu highlights. The New York Times reports the menu will include the likes of pâté en croûte, escargots, frogs legs persillade, hanger steak béarnaise with fries, chicken fricassee and gigot of lamb.

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“In this setting there’s no place for tuna tartar, Caesar salad or a burger,” the NYT writes.

Hanson and Nasr reportedly first reached out to Catherine Treboux – who owns Le Veau d’Or and the surrounding townhouse that her father, Robert Treboux, bought in 1985 – eight or nine years before they ultimately became involved. The success of Frenchette, which won the 2019 James Beard award a year after Hanson and Nasr opened it, earned the pair a call back from Treboux.

“We said instantly that we would take it on,” Nasr told the NY Post. “It is a project and a place that we love and we felt we could do something fun and good there.”

Le Veau d’Or will offer a $125 prix fixe menu with about ten appetizers, ten entrees and five dessert options, as reported by Grub Street. Jeff Teller, formerly of the Waverly Inn and Frenchette, will run the kitchen with Treboux’s son, Derek Summerlin, serving as the maître d’.

“We’re going back to the original way it was run,” Treboux told Grub Street of the establishment once frequented by Orson Welles, Truman Capote, Marlene Dietrich, and Grace Kelly. “It’s a return to a real restaurant, from my father’s private dining room. He was able to run it in his eccentric way.”

Le Veau d’Or sits at the base of the townhouse at 129 East 60th St. (between Park Ave. and Lexington) and translates to “Golden Calf.” Visit the restaurant’s website or Instagram for more information.