De Marchelier
50 East 86th Street
New York, New York 10028
Demarchelier opened in 1978 and its intention is to “expresses the soul of authentic French bistro.” The Website discloses that is a family owned and run restaurant. It views itself as a warm neighborhood restaurant. It offers a traditional French menu and a good selection of French wines. They say it is ideal for a quick bite to eat, a romantic rendez-vous or a meal with your family.
It is attractive from the street. It has a red awing and the name is painted in large white letters. There are white lace curtains in the windows and the daily specials are on a chalkboard on the sidewalk. You can see globe lights hanging over the bar from the street.
Edvard Munch
I had just seen the Munch and Expressionism show at the Neue Gallery which is located on 5th Avenue and 86th Street. It is very convenient to eat at De Marchelier after visiting one of the museums on 5th Avenue.
On my first trip to Europe post college I went to Norway to visit the Munch Museum. I was shattered by the images and have been a Munch fan ever since. According to the Neue Gallery:
Edvard Munch was highly regarded for his exploration of dark themes, including alienation, sin, and human vulnerability. The German artists included in the exhibition are Max Beckmann, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Gabriele Münter, and Emile Nolde, and the Austrians included are Richard Gerstl, Oskar Kokoschka, and Egon Schiele. The curator will compare all of these artists’ approaches to key themes such as adolescence, urban anxiety, and self-portraiture, and to innovative developments in printmaking during this time.
The show was tremendous. I needed some time to sit alone and process the anxiety, alienation and dispair that I felt as I immersed myself in the paintings. Fortunately, I discovered Demarchelier right around the corner.
Atmosphere
It is a very attractive restaurant and reflects the bistro Archetype. There are red leather banquettes along a wall, blond wood floors, and simple wood chairs. There are dry point etching on the walls. The walls are a textured honey yellow so the space feels airy and light. There are large globe lights. Opaline.
It has three rooms. The front room has the bar and a few small tables with views of the sidewalk. The bar is inviting. It has large mirrors on the walls and the street looks quaint through the lace curtains. There is a middle room which seems to be the main dining room and a smaller room in back.
There is a magazine rack which reminds me of Euopean cafes. Now if we can only get to communal tables we will be there!
There was no music and the room with quiet wit
h hushed conversations and much rustling and reading of newspapers.
Apparently, the owner, Eric Demarchelier, is an artist. Many of his paintings are on the walls. They are copies of Picasso but painted in a bright and cheerful palette. They are copies of Dora Maar and Marie Therese I think.
This is an Upper East Side Crowd. It is older ladies who wear Hermes scarves, adventuresome hats and who lunch professionally. The men read the WSJ solemly.
The clear their throats, lay down their heavy black glasses and contemplate their positions in the market. It is very civilized and there were no downtown types in evidence.
Food
The dinner menu is Archetypal bistro. Nicoise salads. Onion soup gratinee. Escargots with garlic butter. Filet mignon and hanger steak. Coq au vin, duck confit. Moules mariniere (pommes frites) and grilled salmon. You can get sides such as spinach a la creme, French string beans and legume du jour.
The lunch menu is summer but there are a few burgers and sandwiches added to the menu. They have a veggie burger and a quinoa, sweet potato and kale burger.
They also have a smoked salmon and avocado tartine and a Mergue sandwich which looked enticing. A Merguez sandwich is a North-African lamb sausage which is served with a spicy pepper harissa spread.
I walked by the restuaurant recently after seeing Divine Pleasures: Paintings From India’s Rajput Courts. This is a smashingly beautiful show of small, highly detailed and perfectly composed minature paintings. The illustras the story of Krishna and Radha and scenes from the Ramayana. It is brilliant. See it before it leaves.
On the chalk menu they offered crab soup, cold sweet peas soup, soft shell crab meuniere with spinach and fussili with chicken and pesto. The express menus is $19.50 for lunch and there is a $32 prix fixe menu for dinner.
I wanted something simple and light because I was runing that afternoon. I ordered the veggie burger with pomes frites on the side. (One must always try the pomees frites in a bistro!)
Service
I really wanted to like this restaurant but the trouble started with the staff. Even though the restaurant was not very busy, it took a long time for someone to notice me and then the waitress was very rushed and busy and short. The bread was bland and stale and not edible. Insipid. Bistros must serve good bread.
The busboy filled up my water glass. I always thank the busboys for filling water glasses and bread baskets because they are human beings just like myself and I am sure they are rarely appreciated. But my thank you was not acknowledged and the guy rushed off.
A different waiter served my lunch. He was Gallic and a bit more personable. The veggie burger was like every other veggie burger you have had anywhere. The pommes frites order was forgotten so I had to ask. They brought it after I finished the veggie burger. The pommes frites were too soft and greasy. The salt was acceptable, so I give it an average score. They seemed mass manufactured. They were not home made. Not bad and not good.
Vaguely unsatisfied and dispirited, I opted to try the chocolate mousse. This always lightens my mood. I wanted to give the restaurant a last chance for redemption.
But no one came to clear my lunch plates. I put them at the end of the table and still no one came to clear my lumch plates. My mousee arrive from the busboy and I asked someone to clear my lunch plates. Finally, someone came by with an “Are you done?” and cleared my lunch plates.
The mousse was like every other chocolate mousse you have had anywhere. But it was not too sweet, and it had faint notes of flowers.
In Sum
In Demarchelier we have a gorgeous bistro. It is very close to the Archetype and is a pleasant, positive and lovely space to have a meal. It invites reading, reflection and conversation. It is civilized and sophisticated in an Upper East Side sort of way. But the food, at lunch time, was average. The staff was below average. I do not think it is wise to use busboys as waiters nor is it wise to send them out to the floor untrained. Learning to give a smile or a thank you (or even a dip of the head), serving all of the order at once, clearing the table promptly and spending an extra 30 seconds with the customers are simple skills that would go a long way.
I will return to Demarchelier and give them another chance. I would like to try their dinner menu. I encourage you to give them a chance as well. There is something of quality here; you may just have to be lucky enough to experience it.
My Articles
Resources
Eric Demarchelier
http://www.ericdemarchelierart.com/
The Neue Galerie
http://www.neuegalerie.org/content/munch-and-expressionism-0
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Divine Pleasures from India)
http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2016/divine-pleasures