All About L’Apero by L’Appartement 4F

1. By day, the space is the viral bakery, L’Appartement 4F.

You’ve probably seen the croissants, golden brown and flaky, on your Instagram feed. Or, maybe you’ve seen the tiny croissant cereal, or one of the lines snaking down the street for the chance to snag a pastry in the morning. Either way, chances are high you’ve heard the name L’Appartement 4F. The bakery, which got its start as a pop-up during the pandemic, serves all the classics — fresh bread, housemade jam, pastries, and butter molded into tiny cherubs.

“It’s hard to live up to the hype,” Coiffard says. “I always tell people that I never said that these are the best croissants you’ll ever get. They’re just my favorite.”

By night, however, the space becomes L’Apero by 4F, a biodynamic wine bar that serves dinner from Wednesday through Saturday. This nighttime concept launched about a year after the bakery opened to showcase a slower, cozier side of the business that balances out the daytime craze.

The team also opened a tiny, counter service–only bakery in the West Village in February.

“It’s been amazing,” Coiffard says. “It’s a lot of new customers who had never made it to Brooklyn — it’s nice to tap into a different neighborhood.”

2. The dinner menu is classic, à la carte, and of course, French.

To start, there’s housemade bread and salted French butter and a spread of French cheeses.

For the first course, go for Caesar salad made with kohlrabi, marble potatoes in speck cream, or persimmon citrus salad from chef Stasia De Tilly.

“[Chef’s] whole philosophy is, of course, French-inspired, but also very farm fresh and based on what’s in season. They kind of have their finger really on the pulse of fine food and very farm-to-table and then really tie it back to the French classics,” Slatkin says of De Tilly. Before joining the L’Apero team, De Tilly, who grew up cooking at home in Champagne, France, worked at New York hot spots including Esme and La Cantine.

“Stasia understood my vision and we worked together really well. They have such a vast knowledge of French classics but put a young and refreshing spin on them,” Coiffard says.

These include branzino en papillote with sea beans, preserved lemon, fennel salad, and summer squash, and pork tenderloin, with a Gingergold apple Calabrian chile jam and haricot vert in mint pistou.

“[L’Apero by 4F] started out as mostly snacks and small plates. But, we noticed a lot of people were coming in Ubers from different places and that they were very hungry,” Coiffard says. “We started upping our menu to include more dinner items.”

Nods to the bakery appear throughout the menu, and not just in the desserts. Yes, there is a tahini chocolate chip cookie sundae to finish, but there is also a kabocha custard tart with a flaky crust and 4F sourdough served with tinned fish.

3. Come ready to drink something biodynamic and natural.

The wine list is biodynamic and mainly French, with a focus on drinkable, juicy pours. It was originally curated by Nick Ferrante of Carroll Gardens’ Bar Bête and is now overseen by Irene Hayes, previously of Rhodora Wine Bar.

“I come to L’Apero with a breadth of experience in the wine industry,” Hayes says. “I have been lucky to gain on-the-ground experience from talented, successful wine professionals here in New York City and I’m excited to bring a curated list of low-intervention, small production wines [that] showcase terroir.”

The list is small, with around eight or nine rotating choices that their staff are always happy to walk you through. Hayes says they recently added low-production, grower Champagne to the list as well.

“We’re not serving big steaks or anything that would require [more full-bodied wines],” Coiffard says of the selection. “Plus, it’s a date night spot and I feel like when you’re on a date, you want to drink light, crisp, refreshing wine that isn’t going to make you fall asleep.”

There are a few wines on the menu that don’t hail from France, a decision the L’Apero team made based on both availability and taste, Coiffard says.

“We wanted to choose an orange wine that we really loved; we didn’t want to choose something just because it’s French, for instance. So, we veered off to Slovenia for the orange wine.”

4. It’s meant to feel like a dinner party at the couple’s house.

When Ashley and Gautier Coiffard first opened the bakery, Ashley had visions of a place where people would linger, sitting upstairs with their pastry bounty and working or chatting to their neighbor. For this reason, she purchased ceramic dishes and silver trays, intended for “to stay” orders.

Of course, daytime service ended up moving too quickly for that.

“We had to sell all of those ceramics that I bought,” Coiffard says with a laugh. At dinner, though, things move much more slowly, which allows for Coiffard’s original vision to shine through.

“I would say you can feel more of Ashley in the wine bar than you can in the bakery. Her taste is very reflected in it, and it does feel like you’re coming to an intimate dinner at someone’s upstairs apartment,” Slatkin says.

The lighting is low, and candelabras abound. There are white tablecloths, and butter served out of repurposed seashells. And the service is equally warm.

“Even though we’re very French-minded when it comes to food, I would say we’re not French-minded when it comes to service,” Coiffard chuckles. “A lot of our staff, coincidentally enough, are from the South. So, we have a very Southern hospitality style [of service].”

None of this is accidental. The couple was inspired, in part, by the enormous dinner parties they used to have before the inception of their bakery and bar.

“It really does remind me of the parties that Gautier and I used to throw in our apartment. We’d have 60 people crammed into 400 square feet. We always used the china, and my crystal was flying everywhere. This is kind of like being there,” Coiffard says.

5. You might just meet the love of your life.

Ask almost anyone who works there, and they’ll tell you something is in the air at L’Appartement 4F and L’Apero by L’Appartement 4F. Maybe it’s because the whole business was built out of Ashley and Gautier’s love story (girl meets boy, boy is French, boy makes great croissants, girl has great taste), or maybe it’s those candelabras.

“[Romance] literally feels like it’s seeping out of the walls,” says Slatkin, who met the “love of her life” from behind the counter almost a year ago. “We get a lot of DMs [that are basically] missed connections, and it’s definitely a first-date spot. It’s very sweet and very rare to have a place where you can have organic in-person interactions these days.”

L’Apero by L’Appartement 4F is open from 6 to 10:30 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday.

Ellie Plass is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. Follow her on Instagram and X. Follow Resy, too.