(Editor”™s note: L”™escale, the Mediterranean-style restaurant located at the Delamar Greenwich Harbor, will be closing its doors Dec. 1 to make way for a new restaurant with the same team, which will continue to be helmed by chef Frederic Kieffer https://www.wagmag.com/frederic-kieffers-culinary-odyssey/ and David Fletcher, director of operations.
L”™escale ”“ whose lease was not renewed by the Greenwich Hospitality Group, https://www.wagmag.com/shipping-scion-charles-mallory-sails-the-seas-of-hospitality/ which owns the Delamar Greenwich Harbor ”“ will be looking for a new home. Before that happens, Table Talk paid L”™escale a visit for one last hurrah: )
L”™escale is the exception to the rule that says restaurants can either have a great view or great food but not both, because this wonderful restaurant ”“ founded by esteemed restaurateur Rick Wahlstedt in 2003 and now a Greenwich institution ”“ has them both in spades.
So thereӪs really no right or wrong way to start lunch or dinner at GreenwichӪs classiest restaurant. But a flute of deliciously cold, small-bubbled Baron Albert Brut Ros̩ Champagne would be as good a way as any as it seems a suitable drink for the restaurantӪs beautifully proportioned dining rooms, which give way to a gorgeous waterfront terrace overlooking Greenwich Harbor.
I say it”™s the “classiest” restaurant, because class is what L”™escale is all about. Real class doesn”™t exclude glamor or even a touch of razzmatazz but, in its always quiet way, transcends them.
Take the filigree light fixtures. With their spindly, rococo curlicues and triangles of cut-out newspaper to mimic ships”™ sails, they are objects of beauty in their own right. Beautiful, too, are the “simple” displays of dried flowers in their vast, bubble-glass vases on a central service table. (They”™re the last word in understated chic. It”™s a brave man or woman who gets to wash and dry those particular receptacles.)
The bar, with its concealed lighting and distressed paneling, has every spirit you know and quite a few others you donӪt, along with splendidly recherch̩ French vermouths and abstruse Italian bitters.
The overall look is broadly Provençal, as if you had scoured the best antique shops in L”™Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and bought only the choicest pieces. But the success of the decoration ”“ and indeed, a keystone of real class ”“ is that it is intrinsic. It doesn”™t look as if you have had to try too hard.
Generously-sized tables are covered with snowy white linen and the flatware is heavy, hallmarked silver. Underfoot, sisal mats partially cover the imported 200-year-old terracotta floors.
As for the crowd, it is eclectic ”“ lunching ladies for sure, but also hedge-funders clinching the deal; mothers and daughters sharing precious quality time; couples celebrating anniversaries or blushing sweet-16s, shy at all the spoiling from the attentive waitstaff. Or, simply friends out having a good time, because the last thing you need to eat at L”™escale is an excuse.
The scene set, the food would be almost incidental were it not so good. Appetizers, or “Pour commencer,” as they are styled, include oysters, clams and caviar, charcuterie, tuna tartare and smoked salmon. Salads, some decorated with edible flowers, spill over with freshness. A rich, late-harvest tomato soup, flecked with cilantro, is served in a teacup, with a mini-brie and brioche grilled cheese on the plate beside it. “Just like mamma used to make,” quips L”™escale”™s debonair director of operations, David Fletcher, a former captain (and hospitality service award winner) at Daniel in New York City and later maître d”™hôtel at Café Boulud, as he passes by our table. Hmm, not exactly, but I suspect he is being ironic. My mother”™s tomato soup, lovely as it was, was never as ambrosial as this.
For lighter appetites, beef sliders or Maine lobster sliders, delicately listed as “snacks,” might be the way to go, with salad Niçoise or chicken paillard as a main. More substantial appetites might favor a gourmet cheeseburger, steak frites, a meaty tranche of grilled halibut with spinach or Maine lobster with a spicy tagliatelle.
It does indeed feel like “the Côte d”™Azur delivered right to your table,” as Kieffer has described his cooking, a sense of place strongly reinforced by servers who even in mid-October are clad in white chinos and navy Vilebrequin polo shirts.
But there is a coda to all this. As L”™escale”™s loyal customers have known for some time now and as the restaurant itself announces in a heartfelt paragraph on its website, the restaurant will be closing its doors on Dec. 1. It”™s working hard to find a new home but, in the meantime, come visit while you can. Savor the mood, sample the elegance and revel in the art of gracious living. Because as much as it is about the food and the decoration, lunch or dinner at L”™escale is a master class in, well, masterly class.
For reservations, go to lescalerestaurant.com.
