Business & Tech

NEW EATS: La Défense

French bistro opening at 2 MetroTech takes aim at DoBro's new 24/7 dining culture.

Much like the rest of a rapidly transforming Downtown Brooklyn, La Défense, a bistro/bakery opening next week at 2 MetroTech, has a foot in two distinctly different sensibilities: one business and the other, well, not.

As its name, culled from the sector of Paris noteworthy for its modernist skyscrapers, suggests, La Défense takes a business-like approach to cuisine. Hence a menu filled with staples like the burger made with fresh ground chuck, wild salmon in chimichurri sauce and roasted chicken with broccoli rabe—entrees that aren't likely to surprise any among the traditional DoBro lunch crowd of office workers, Brooklyn Poly students and government employees.

But there's another side to La Défense that takes a page from more recent developments in the neighborhood.

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"It isn't just office space down here anymore. We have residents of condo towers like the Toren and Avalon that are going to come to one of the first restaurants to really have a presence at night," said general manager Evan Brownstein.

A self-described mixologist, Brownstein promises a unique bar atmosphere defined by pre-Prohibition era cocktails and a decor filled with found objects like wood from a barn in upstate New York or a wall-sized mural from a long-ago ad campaign for a furnishing company.

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As for the bistro side of the business, Brownstein promises a more 'Continental' approach to service, allowing diners to enjoy a light meal of mussels served with a Dijon chorizo sauce while sipping a glass of dry white wine and discussing art, philosophy or “Occupy.”

"We don't need to 'turn' a lot of tables here," Brownstein said, referring to the practice of clearing precious restaurant space for new paying customers. "We want people to hang out."

Co-owned by Bruno Laclide of Boerum Hill's Bacchus, the combined bakery, bistro and bar space will open for breakfast and lunch on Monday, Nov. 14. Dinner service will begin three weeks after the opening, Brownstein said.


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