14 Feb 2019
L'Avenue restaurant brings the French Alps to Fifth Avenue
BY Andrew Manns
The first iteration of the popular Paris dining concept L'Avenue has opened its doors at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York.
Designed by French art director and interior specialist Philippe Starck, L'Avenue stretches across the luxury emporium's 8th and 9th floors and boasts a wunderkammer-style main dining room as well as a lounge modelled after an alpine ski lodge.
Dubbed the "Salon", the dining area, which Starck has called an "arty surprise" and "an ivory jewel box bathed in the warm sun" features pastel and beige-toned upholstery and panelling.
The Chalet bar and lounge has a "masculine yet sensual atmosphere" and is furnished with a smorgasbord of themed decorations, such as sleds, books, assorted postcards and photographs, and cowhide sofas.
Speaking on the restaurant, Starck said that it has a "welcoming" vibe to "warm up both body and soul".
He added: "You are somewhere else, in the middle of NY, yet so far from the city."
L'Avenue, the first international venture of the same-named upscale restaurant on Avenue Montaigne in Paris, forms part of Saks' US$250m (€221.3m, £195m) renovation, which has seen the store reimagine more than 4,924 sq m of space.
In 2015, when the Saks collaboration was first announced, L'Avenue’s founder, Jean-Louis Costes, said that the new venue would be the "ideal counterpart" for Saks' vision to "rethink its client journey".
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