Daniel Bouluds long delayed new flagship was worth the wait

The curtain rose late on Brasserie Boulud across from Lincoln Center, but the spectacular show is worth the wait.Daniel Boulud’s 225-seat successor to his cherished Bar Boulud and Boulud Sud at 1900 Broadway took months longer to open than planned.

Boulud’s Dinex Group team needed the time for construction after the brasserie’s dated predecessors closed in June 2025.“This was a creation, not a renovation,” Boulud told me.

It required a lot of labor as well as shrinking the grab-and-go Epicerie that stood between the two old eateries and relocating it to the side.Then there was the tortuous permit process involving a slew of city agencies.

The end result beautifully restores the famous restaurant row facing the Lincoln Center plaza, which also includes Cafe Fiorello and The Smith. The new brasserie’s uncompromisingly traditional French menu whips the pâtés off obscure departures that lesser French chefs indulge in to establish their “creative” creds.Boulud and executive chef Christina D’Angelo, a 2-year Dinex veteran, pull it off not by adding modern spins, but through attention to detail to create depths of flavor that do classic dishes justice.Guests of the Metropolitan Opera, the Philharmonic and other performing arts companies across the street  — and ordinary Upper West Siders — can enjoy antique-sounding but crowd-pleasing dishes like escargots persillade and coq au vin without shame.As at any brasserie worthy of its name, the menu includes a something-for-everyone array of meat and seafood, caviar and smoked fish, a shellfish tower, pâté and mousse from charcuterie chef Arthur Dehaine, pasta, steak frites and, soon, seasonal monthly specials.Early standouts include plump boudin blanc, richly sauced and garlicky pork and veal sausage ($25) made by Dehaine, and Moroccan-style Merguez lamb and beef sausage attended by harissa-spiced chickpea spinach — a whiff of the old Boulud Sud ($25).Not to miss is sensuously compose...