THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Payard Patisserie & Bistro

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Payard Patisserie & Bistro Restaurant Review:

Be prepared to swoon over the display cases of French confections---which are served in a very French atmosphere---but don't forsake the elegant bistro located steps behind the café. François Payard, a third-generation pastry chef who won a huge following at Daniel, has turned Payard into a brand unto itself, opening these much-more-than-a-coffee-shop-stop cafés around the world from Tokyo to Rio, Sao Paulo and back. There are menus that run all day for anything you might be in the mood for. Come for tea snacks like pretzels with salmon rillette and chive cream cheese and come back for lunch or a pre-theatre menu, dinner tasting and, of course, Payard's irresistible desserts. Needless to say, executive chef Philippe Bertineau has his work cut out for him. We like the five-course dinner tasting menu at under $75, with wine pairing for $35. Or, if you choose the à la carte route, you can start with an appetizer like red beet soup with pickled goat cheese and dill and then move on to entrées like sautéed Maine skate with celery root purée, salsify and hen-of-the woods mushrooms, and wild mushroom velouté and tapioca jus. The David Rockwell design, with its mosaic floor and exquisite blown-glass light fixtures resembling three-bulbed street lamps, leads you to believe you really are seated along one of Paris’s famed boulevards.