Letter of Recommendation New York
Chez Ma Tante Is the Ultimate Neighborhood Restaurant
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A few years ago, on what had been up until then a very ordinary Tuesday, I got a call that changed my life: It was a job offer. A real W2 job — with dental no less — was a concept nothing short of mind-blowing after freelancing for almost a full decade. I felt that I ought to celebrate, and since I had no plans, I walked down the street to Chez Ma Tante for one fancy martini at the bar.
When I got there, an elegantly dressed woman informed me that the restaurant was closed for a private event. I apologized and turned to leave, but then she flashed me a radiant smile. “And it’s my private event because today is my birthday,” she said. It turned out she was co-owner Jake Leiber’s mother, Nadia. “Why don’t you come in and have a drink with us?”
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I wound up crashing one of the most fabulous birthday parties I’ve ever attended that night. There was Champagne and great platters of oysters served until late. The crowd was warm and wonderful — a mix of friends Nadia had made over the years. I explained to one of the other guests that I didn’t know the birthday honoree, but she’d invited me in anyway.
“Oh, of course, that’s so Nadia,” said the woman, a flight attendant who had met her on a plane a decade ago. The two had remained in touch ever since. “She makes everyone feel welcome.”
That’s also the vibe at Chez Ma Tante: generous and a little bit celebratory, even on an otherwise normal day. While the quality of the food certainly rises to fine-dining levels, Chez Ma Tante is the diametric opposite of a starchy-tableclothed gastro-shrine. Chef-owners Jake Leiber and Aidan O’Neal borrowed the name from a hot dog stand in Montreal, but its origins are older and hint at the joint’s unstuffy ethos. “Chez Ma Tante” is a French expression for an item that’s been pawned, supposedly in honor of a 19th-century figure who hawked his watch for cash but insisted to his mother that it was just “at his aunt’s house.”
When the restaurant opened in Greenpoint in 2017, a year before I moved there, Pete Wells at the New York Times gave it two stars and everyone went nuts for the pancakes. The pancakes, half-fried in clarified butter until crisp-edged and darkened to maximum Maillard reaction, are as popular as ever and competition for brunch tables remains fierce. But come evening, reservations are easier to get and the vibe is more relaxed.
Selfishly, I’m grateful that the hype died down at least a little. What was left when the influencer hordes moved on was just a really good neighborhood hang — the kind of place where you inevitably run into other locals at the bar. On a rainy Monday, I met a pair who referred to Chez Ma Tante as “Greenpoint’s diner.” They were perched at the corner bar seats, still riding the high of their wedding two weeks prior. This is a good place to bring someone you’re wildly in love with.
Pancakes aside, there are so many reasons to love this place. I love it because it’s a Little Black Dress of a restaurant — as perfect for a special occasion with friends as it is a splurgy solo dinner (plus, the staff are especially kind to lone diners). I love it because it adapts so effortlessly to New York’s seasonal mood swings. With its soft, low lighting and steady conversational thrum, it’s supremely cozy, even on the most wretched January night. Then, on long evenings in June, the fairy lights and sidewalk tables come out.
I love it because the desserts are salty and rich, with a restrained sweetness that will convert even your I’m-not-really-a-dessert-person friend. When in doubt, order the deeply maple-y crème brûlée — a nod to the restaurant’s very loose French-Canadian leanings — or the olive oil–drizzled sliver of flourless chocolate cake, which is an homage to the River Café. In keeping with the rest of the menu offerings, both items underpromise and overdeliver; they sound basic and are anything but.
Then there are the fries, which, for my money are the best in New York (even better than the skinny, haute McDonald’s dupes at their sister restaurant, Le Crocodile.) These are thick, just shy of steak fry heft. The surface area ratio yields an interior that’s the texture of mashed potatoes and an exterior with an audible crunch and salt flakes clustered in the crags.
Should you arrive on weeknights before 7 p.m., a mountain of these fries with aioli is $5.50 at the bar — an impossibly generous offer at one of the most slept-on happy hours in the city. The oysters, at two bucks a pop, come on a raised platter like jewelry, and the $4.50 chicken liver pâté glides like softened butter over She Wolf miche. Marinated olives are famously one of the steepest mark-ups at restaurants, but here they’ll only set you back $3.50. Snack strategically with a friend over a couple of bay leaf–infused “teeny tinis,” and you’ll leave warm, happy, and reasonably full for roughly $20 each before tip, which feels like a minor miracle in this economy.
Greenpoint has been changing at an alarming rate. In the last few years, the neighborhood said goodbye to Ramona, Saint Vitus, Pencil Factory, and Wise Guy, among others. The old Lutheran church on McGolrick is now a particularly oppressive set of luxury condos. It’s no easy feat for an independent restaurant to survive under these conditions.
The neighborhood mourned in February of last year when Chez Ma Tante announced it would close “for the foreseeable future” due to building repairs. When a New York restaurant closes, there’s no guarantee that it will return, or that it will retain the magic sustained by a particular front- and back-of-house crew. In the evenings leading up to Chez Ma Tante’s closure, the bar was packed, in large part with people working at other restaurants nearby. What a relief it was to see it return to service like an old friend last summer.
On a recent evening, I noticed a woman eyeing my fries at the bar, so I offered to share. She gratefully accepted, saying the only reason she hadn’t gotten her own was that she’d ordered them on the previous two evenings. It’s that kind of place, where you can drop in night after night, and you can arrive as a stranger, but you won’t feel like one by the end.
The message here is simple: Come as you are, whoever you are, and you will be well-fed and always in good company.
Chez Ma Tante is open from Monday to Friday from 5 to 10 p.m., and on weekends from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Diana Hubbell is a James Beard Award-winning food and travel journalist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Atlas Obscura, VICE, Eater, Condé Nast Traveler, Esquire, WIRED, and Travel + Leisure, among other places. Previously based in Berlin and Bangkok, she currently lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Follow her on Instagram.
Ben Hon is a New York-based photographer. Follow him on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.
