Michelin rated three star chef Antoine Westermann and his business partner, Francis Staub, opened it's first U.S. location of this famous Parisian restaurant, located between Park Avenue South and Broadway in Manhattan.  Le Coq Rico is neighbor to some of New York’s most popular restaurants, which are located in the area at the convergence of the booming neighborhoods of Flatiron/Madison Square, Union Square, Grammercy Park and the Madison Avenue Advertising District.  It occupies the entire storefront in a landmarked Gabay Building, erected in 1910 and owned and managed by Walter & Samuels.  MADGI also designed the recent historic restoration of the building. 

The 132-seat, U-shaped restaurant features a full bar; a wine cave, which is an area with an illuminated wall that serves as a wine chiller; a dining area with lacquer-top tables and seating as well as two communal tables; and a very high-end show kitchen with bar-style seating for 18.

Overall, the design is meant to pay homage to the original Le Coq Rico in Paris, but is much more refined.  Thus, it has wide-plank oak flooring throughout, walls and ceilings –reminiscent of a farmhouse – are sandblasted and white-painted Canadian oak, with black mirror-like accents made of black back-painted backlit glass on walls.

The interior also houses a feature wall across from the kitchen made of Moonface marble.  The 16′ feature wall is illuminated with an LED wall wash.  When the maître d’ takes patrons from the front, each gets a glimpse of the entire restaurant, as they must walk through the restaurant’s individual sections, i.e., the wine cave, then the dining room with its wall unit of dishes and communal tables, and then the show kitchen.

The project team installed a new angled 21’x5′ skylight which features prominently in the dining room.  Energy-efficient LED lighting is used throughout, backlighting the black back-painted glass and with down lights over the dining tables.  Continuous linear LED fixtures illuminate the show kitchen’s dining counter.  The cellar has storage and a wine room.

The 670-square foot kitchen is meant to be as much a theatre as it is a functional kitchen.  It is appointed with Bonnet custom ovens manufactured in France and each shipped in two pieces.

Overall, the kitchen line is 33.5′ long, with 24.5′ of the Bonnet matte black ovens and two 4.5′ long Rotisols, also in black. The eating bar flanking the kitchen has bar-height seats and offers a front-row centre look in on the show in the kitchen.  There are interactions between the cooks and the patrons sitting in this section, with offers of small plates of what they are cooking.  The bar top is stone and the bottom is wood and stone.

The sleek, modern, L-shaped wet bar (20′ long on one side, 6′ long on the other) is made of oak and has a black top.  The base of the bar is white wood at the top with dark stone at the base, specifically Quartzmaster’s Pure Black.  It seats 10.  The bar area also features a mirror along one wall and a black, back-painted glass wall along the other.  Shelves are illuminated to showcase the liquor bottles.