Open From Morning to Late, Daniel Boulud Returns to Broadway
Across from Lincoln Center, the chef folds three old rooms into one brasserie with a lit oval bar at its center and express menus for after the show
For more than a year, the corner of Broadway and West 64th Street sat without a Daniel Boulud room. Now there is one again, and it is one large room where there used to be three, built around a dramatically lit oval bar and a promise to stay open late.
Brasserie Boulud opened on September 17 at 1900 Broadway. It fills the corner that held three of the chef's restaurants for about two decades, Bar Boulud, Boulud Sud, and Épicerie Boulud, all of which closed in July 2025. Instead of reopening them one by one, Boulud merged them into a single place. More than 10,000 square feet over two floors. Around 320 seats inside and out, according to a New York Times figure cited by I Love the Upper West Side. A main dining room, private rooms, a retail épicerie worked into the plan, and a small speakeasy tucked into the mix.
It is, remarkably, his first true brasserie in New York. Boulud is a Lyon native who grew up around places like this, I Love the Upper West Side points out, and it took him until now to build one here.
Le Grand Restaurant of Everyday Life
Boulud laid out the idea in plain terms in comments published by Robb Report. "In France, it's 'le grand restaurant' of everyday life," he said. He called the brasserie "lively, generous, open from morning to late," and promised "seasonal classics, great seafood, and dishes that reflect both regional tradition and the spirit of grande cuisine."
Morning to late is the whole pitch. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with coffee and croissants to eat in or carry out. According to West Side Rag's report on the opening, the kitchen also runs express menus before and after the theater, which is the part that matters most on this block. The restaurant sits directly across Broadway from Lincoln Center, and on show nights a lot of hungry people spill out onto that same street.
Morning to late is the whole pitch.
The design is by David Rockwell's Rockwell Group. A spokesperson told West Side Rag to expect a bright, open main dining room anchored by a very large central bar, along with an intimate speakeasy and private dining rooms. I Love the Upper West Side described the bar as a dramatically lit oval.
What Is on the Table
The executive chef is Christina D'Angelo, who ran the kitchen at Boulud Sud and has worked with Boulud for more than a decade. The head sommelier is Josh MacGregor. The menu, as reported by I Love the Upper West Side, sticks to the brasserie canon. Onion soup. Escargots. Steak frites. A few old friends come back from the shuttered rooms, including merguez sausage and saffron spaghetti from Boulud Sud and the DB Burger, the one with foie gras. Among the new dishes is a timbale of homard à l'Américaine, lobster in the classic French sauce.
Wine by the glass comes from oversize bottles, with Beaujolais leading the way, which feels right for a Lyon native and right for a table of six arguing about the second act. The same spokesperson told West Side Rag the cooking would keep Boulud's seasonal French style while leaning toward casual, everyday meals and fresh takes on bistro classics.
That casual note is the real news. Boulud's name tends to signal fine dining and special occasions. This is something else. A place where you can get a croissant with your morning coffee and then come back after a show for an express menu and a glass of red, with no ceremony either way. The same address, the same bar, a different city outside the window depending on the hour.
The Neighborhood After the Show
The timing is hard to miss. I Love the Upper West Side lined the opening up with the Lincoln Center calendar, with the New York Philharmonic season set to begin on September 10 and the Metropolitan Opera on September 22 with Lise Davidsen. Gustavo Dudamel is in his debut season leading the Philharmonic, Robb Report notes, and the Met has been working to bring in new audiences, including through a monthly ticket lottery for first timers. Every one of those nights ends with a crowd on the plaza deciding where to go next.
For more than a year, Boulud's corner was dark. DiningOut called the new place a welcome return to the neighborhood, and anyone who used to cross Broadway for a glass of wine after a show will understand why.
The lights are back on. The bar in the middle is big enough for a crowd that has been sitting still for hours and wants to stand and talk. The speakeasy offers a smaller, more intimate room. The épicerie sells the idea that you can take a little of the place home.
It is a restaurant, not a nightclub, and it has not published its closing hours. But on this stretch of the West Side, nightlife has always meant the hour after the curtain, a drink and a plate and an argument about the soprano. Daniel Boulud has built a very large, very handsome room for exactly that hour, and in his own words it runs from morning to late.
