Here is an insider's view of the new Brooklyn restaurant, Bar Blondeau, which was created by the team that brought you the hit restaurant Le Crocodile.

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When SoHo went from artists’ lofts to a neighborhood bursting with big-name retail outlets and tourists just a generation before, Williamsburg began to change from a roughhewn neighborhood into a hipster mecca where there's an Apple Store, the Hoxton Hotel and J. Crew. Despite the fact that not everyone in North Brooklyn is sure to welcome the new tenants of the last decade, chefs Aidan O'Neal and Jake Leiber have made excellent neighbors in North Brooklyn since they arrived in the last decade.

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It was announced in 2019 that the team behind the French-Canadian bistro Chez Ma Tante in Greenpoint had moved their business to Williamsburg, joining forces with restaurateur Joe Neidrich, who has launched spots like Acme and The Happiest Hour in Brooklyn. In collaboration with him, they opened the smashing hit Le Crocodile together, a movie that earned a three-star rating from Pete Wells at The Times.

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Currently, the team is working on a new project on the sixth floor of the same building, where they have created a French brasserie with a New York attitude. Above the restaurant, they've opened Bar Blondeau, their attempt to create an unpretentious wine bar in the City of Light, where finely crafted food is paired with natural wines in an unpretentious space, inspired by the City of Light's Bistronomy movement.

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It is O'Neal and Leiber's pleasure to bring you dishes like escargot with Parsley, Pernod and fennel, venison steak tartare, and roast chicken with herb jus and fries at Le Crocodile. At Bar Blondeau, it's smaller plates, inspired by France, Spain and Portugal, with an emphasis on seafood, with an emphasis on smaller plates

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A swordfish salad with aubergine, almonds and raisins, lobster salad with basil and pesto, as well as oysters with apples and ginger are among the dishes to be served. Rafa Garcia Febles, a sommelier at Le Crocodile, will join them to curate the wine program. In addition to the natural wines from around the world, a cocktail program that includes four non-alcoholic options, such as an Old Fashioned made from Ghia vodka, will be served as well. Bar manager Sörine Anderson will lead the cocktail program that includes four non-alcoholic options.

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On the sixth floor of the Wythe hotel, the architects took advantage of the outstanding views across the East River that the hotel has to offer. In designing the restaurant, they made sure that the majority of the 70 seats were positioned so that diners could see the Manhattan skyline as they peer out of the floor-to-ceiling windows. With this view and O'Neal and Leiber’s cooking, you might think that the chefs won’t be wearing out their welcome anytime soon in the neighborhood.