Le Clou

Like the new Petite Cerise, this French upstart in the Morrow hotel is open three meals a day. As with the young L’Avant-Garde, the service can take a back seat to some of the singular sensations emerging from the open kitchen. If you’re looking for the city’s best lobster thermidor, an omelet for dinner, or Paris-Brest for dessert, Le Clou has you covered.

All three Gallic comers have in common a top chef, in Le Clou’s case, Nicholas Stefanelli, best known in Washington for his Italian cooking at restaurants including Masseria. The chef likes to remind us his training is French and burgundies are his passion. Allow me to pronounce his poulet rôti as good as his pastas.

The day-to-day cooking is executed with flair and consistency by chef de cuisine Nico Cezar. Count on the omelet at Le Clou always to be rich with French butter, tangy with crème fraîche and gilded with caviar. The only thing different about the excellent sweetbreads might be a change of accessories for the season: creamed fava beans instead of wintry cauliflower and shaved truffles. The steak frites deserves better than frozen fries, but I love to know about a place that offers frogs legs.

Set off the hotel lobby, the airy dining room mixes comfort with chic. Baby-blue chairs and brown leather banquettes front the swirled marble tables, and a recently arrived champagne cart feels like the appropriate fizz. In its short life, Le Clou has emerged as a destination restaurant.