Exclusive | Luxury retailer Printemps opens in Financial District with fine fashion and fine cuisine from NYC-born top chef in boost to hard-hit area
The highly-anticipated opening of famed French luxury retailer Printemps in the Financial District will not only offer the latest haute couture – but also haute cuisine from a Queens-born top chef.Gregory Gourdet returns to New York after spending the past 17 years on the West Coast, winning three James Beard awards for French-inspired fare that draws on his Haitian roots.“It’s great to be back,” Gourdet told Side Dish in an exclusive interview.“I love fashion and with my Haitian heritage, and starting my career in French fine dining, it all really made sense.”Gourdet will oversee five food and beverage hotspots across two floors at Printemps, which means spring in French and officially opens its doors Thursday — the first day of spring — at the landmark One Wall Street skyscraper.The department store features an all-day café, a champagne bar and a raw bar – as well as Maison Passerelle, an 85-seat fine-dining restaurant that comes with its own separate entrance on Broadway.Touted as the biggest retail and restaurant opening in New York since the creation of Hudson Yards, the shopping mecca will also hopefully revitalize a neighborhood hard hit by the work-from-home phenomenon that followed the COVID pandemic.During a soft opening on Tuesday, Keillie O’Malley, 37, and her friend Kiera Elliott, 28, were among those who popped into the stylish Champagne Bar.The pair were celebrating Elliott’s upcoming marriage.“We’re doing some window shopping, some wedding shopping and some drinking,” said O’Malley, who lives in FiDi.
“Everyone gives this area a hard time.It was very commuter, but it’s starting to get a personality.
I hope this will help [the area] get nicer.”Elliott, who lives nearby in Battery City, added: “It feels more elevated — something new and exciting to the neighborhood, bringing some romance to the area.”The “sip and shop” destination even has roaming Champagne bar carts and a spot to hold the pricey flutes ...