'That French place in Cold Spring': Le Bouchon still popular after 20 years
If you have happy memories of just the perfect bistro or brasserie on a tucked-away alley in France, you’ll likely greet the homey traditional French fare at Brasserie Le Bouchon with a big smile on your face.
It has now been 20 years since owner Pascal Graff, a native of the Alsace region of France, opened the sweet little French restaurant on the corner of Main and Fair streets in the heart of Cold Spring.
Business is humming along nicely, general manager Michael Vierra reports. “Even during the pandemic we stayed busy.”
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“It’s funny – we haven’t really advertised in years,” he says. “People just keep coming back. We’re that French place in Cold Spring that everybody knows about and remembers.”
“I wear lots of different hats around here,” says Vierra, who is also the maître d and sometime server. “Yesterday I was a plumber.”
There is room for about 35 diners indoors, with 65 or so seats in the back yard and another eight on the front porch, he says. A small bar behind the dining room is now used as a service station.
We stopped by for lunch twice in recent weeks and the food is as good as I remember from previous visits. I’ve always been an easy mark for well-prepared traditional French bistro and brasserie fare, and this place really hit the spot. Not a missed note.
We liked that we were served a good crusty bread with butter as soon as we sat down. The appealing menu’s selections include appetizers (goat cheese tart, escargot, cheese and charcuterie plates, pate, salmon gravlax, and a pizza with lardons); beer garden fare (a Cuban burger, a chicken or steak sandwich, and croque monsieur and madams); salads, including Nicoise and frisse Lyonnaise with lardons; five varieties of mussels and fries; entrees (halibut or salmon, steak frite, and filet mignon); platters (steak tartare, roast chicken, bangers and mash, wild mushroom ravioli and blood sausage); and vegetable side dishes.
It’s a faded jewel box of a room, with red banquettes, red walls and ceilings, red and white checkered tablecloths, hardwood floors, a marble fireplace and mirrors high up on the walls. It all seems a bit frozen in time and oh so cozy and inviting.
It’s a convivial space, with everyone looking like they’re having a good time. We also noticed that just about everyone in the room had a glass of wine with lunch. Very French indeed.
The service on both of our visits was excellent — friendly, knowledgeable, deft and very much a team effort. There were no long waits for anything to come out of the kitchen, even with a full, busy room on a Saturday. And everything that came out of the kitchen looked so appealing.
Every sizable town or neighborhood should have a classic French restaurant just like this one.
What we tried
French onion soup: One of our visits was on a dreary and surprisingly cold spring day, and it looked like pretty much every table in the room was starting with a piping hot bowl of onion soup. It was just what you would expect — a rich and flavorful broth with a hefty portion of caramelized onions topped with lots of gooey Gruyere and Munster cheese. “Ours is not overly salty,” Vierra says. “It’s cooked very low and slow and it’s very chunky.”
Grilled octopus: This special was just delicious, featuring a large piece of octopus tentacle served with small potatoes, thin slices of grilled sausage and dressed with a really tasty mix of olive oil, parsley and garlic. Hunks of bread were perfect for sopping up the leftover dressing.
Steak au poivre: The steak was nice and peppery and perfectly medium rare, with a sauce that tasted of Cognac, cream and peppercorns. The fries were hot and crispy and salty, and our server offered accompanying thimbles of ketchup, mustard or aioli, or “all of the above.” We opted for the very good aioli. It was a nice-sized steak and priced at $30, a restaurant bargain these days.
Cassoulet: Oh, I just love this dish when it’s dreary outside. This one was just as expected – a really, really flavorful stew served in a cast iron skillet, with five different types of pork, Vierra says, along with lamb sausage and duck confit, in a sea of creamy white beans. It was wonderfully crusty on the edges, with breadcrumbs on top. It was a quite generous serving, which made for an excellent lunch the next day.
Bread pudding: This was surprising dense and chewy, served with candied walnuts, a drizzle of caramel sauce, a dollop of whipped cream, a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a cookie. I later learned from Vierra that it’s made with croissants. I’m not normally much of a bread pudding pan, but I liked this one just fine.
Drinks and dessert
Wines by the glass are $11, and most bottles are in the $35 to $50 range.
Desserts, priced at $9, include crème brulee, Grand Marnier-flavored double dark chocolate mousse, profiteroles, apple tart, and assorted ice creams and sorbets ($5).
Who goes
A mix of locals and tourists, Vierra says. “Tourism in Cold Spring is definitely at a high point. With the nice weather, all of the hikers and day trippers are coming back.”
Inside scoop
Bring your own wine and pay a corkage fee of $20. Sorry, but no reservations.
What’s nearby
There are lots of great hiking trails in the Cold Spring-Beacon area. Try the trails at nearby Mount Beacon.
The 411 on Brasserie Le Bouchon
Cuisine: Classic French bistro and brasserie
Entrée price range: $24 to $35
Noise level: Moderate
Hours: Noon to 8 p.m. every day
Go: 76 Main St., Cold Spring, 845-265-7676, facebook.com/LeBouchon76/
This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: After 20 years, Cold Spring's Le Bouchon is still popular with diners
