This offshoot of a New York favourite isn’t reinventing the wheel, but it does bring a touch of Gallic glam to the neighbourhood
A faux-French, cult-hit New York brasserie has opened in Neal’s Yard, deep in the hairy armpit of Covent Garden among alleyways where holistic therapy rooms, walk-in back rub spaces, Neal’s Yard Remedies and 26 Grains cafe are its immediate neighbours. The windchimes and the whiff of patchouli part the air round these parts, and the footfall is yoga pant-clad and hungry for hummus. Buvette, meanwhile, has brought a touch of Gallic glam to the neighbourhood, and is clearly aimed at the Emily in Paris generation with its totalement français menu featuring croque monsieur with roast mushrooms and gruyere, rillettes de saumon or salade niçoise with haricots verts and a mollet egg; there’s also a Macvin champagne and muscadet spritz, pastis on the rocks, warm scones with jam, and almond croissants.
This is the London arm of Jody Williams’ West Village gastrothèque, and its menu is a pretty card listing 25 dishes to choose from, none of them above £18. It clearly thinks it’s a hot, fresh, new thing, but I’m not sure it’s anything new at all. We used to call places that looked like this Café Rouge: that is, recognisably French, and by that I mean recognisable if you have a working GCSE knowledge of La Rochelle cafe life. It’s that version of French dining that won’t scare the horses, or at least the horses that the French haven’t minced coarsely and served in their own gastroduodenal canals with an exemplary homemade moutarde.