THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Charles

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Charles Restaurant Review:

A neighborhood’s least favorite restaurant is one that comes in and caters to anyone but the neighborhood. For the West Village, that restaurant is Charles, located a block from Charles Street on the improbable intersection of W. 4th and W. 10th Streets. Charles, which opened in October 2008, kept its existence on the serious down low for months as the owners opted to keep newspaper over the windows and the building’s owners left an eyesore of a scaffolding over the facade, leaving everyone except the dining cognoscenti to assume the place wasn’t yet open. But it was. And the see-and-be-seen Manhattan crowd, wearing shoes that screamed “this season,” were quietly finding their way to Charles to bask in this forced sense of exclusivity. Though the offerings from the kitchen are decent, coming here to actually eat is beside the point. Roasted almond-accented chicken, however, is good enough while the grilled octopus (touched by tangy blood orange) and the scallops and prawns in a rich saffron sauce are highlights of the menu. The wine list, with its emphasis on France, is prohibitively expensive. Reservations must be made through the restaurant’s website.