Restaurateur Cody Pruitt of hit West Village restaurant Libertine opened Chateau Royale in Greenwich Village, a new modern French restaurant with old-world glam. The first-floor bar offers a more relaxed experience, but upstairs in the proper dining room is where you go to feel special: a high-end environment with corresponding prices. Pruitt took cues from iconic NYC French restaurants for the design, incorporating velvet banquettes, white tablecloths, and blank walls for a little minimalism.
Sure, it’s a gimmick, but order a martini from the cocktail cart (which you can feel rumbling around the dining room from your seat). It’s fun and a classically done drink, and the very dirty gin martini is particularly intense. Drinks range from $17 to $25.
The upstairs is fancy-feeling but not stuffy, so go here for special meals where you can wear a jacket with a baseball cap and not feel out of place.
Tall people, be warned: watch your head when walking up the stairwell to the second-floor dining room; that ceiling is quite low.