It’s not every New York restaurant where you feel impelled to stop and take in your surroundings, but Cathédrale, in the Moxy East Village Hotel, is one of them. The 26-foot, triple-height ceiling in the main dining room is covered in a massive dramatically lit wire mesh sculpture that pays tribute to the Fillmore East — the famous late-’60s East Village rock venue that in its heyday was nicknamed the “Church of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
The restaurant advertises itself as French-Mediterranean, though the occasional offering strays from that formula: Witness the mini Maine lobster roll on the “Lite Bites” menu.
The hors d’oeuvres section of the menu contains a few unusual but tasty listings, among them sections of a warm epi baguette which you dip in a small copper pot of fragrant rotisserie drippings and eat — a good starter if you missed lunch. Chunks of rhubarb, minced oil-cured black olives, and celery hearts brighten slivers of raw hamachi.
Some menu items balance excellence with a touch of whimsy. An example is the “potato chip omelet,” an expertly turned French omelet garnished with white sturgeon caviar and crème fraîche plus a top layer of the chips. Your waiter recommends using the chips to scoop up the other elements.
Butter from the village of Échiré in western France is so highly prized for its creaminess and flavor as to warrant protected status by the French government. Here the luxurious spread is joined by an abundance of black truffle shavings and fresh cracked pepper as a dressing for al dente fettucine.
A slab of black bass is partnered with clams, applewood-smoked bacon, potatoes, and sugar snap peas. The production is presented in a reduction of the clam liquor and Vermentino wine.
One section of the menu categorized as “Sur La Table” contains two high-end items that are served family-style. One of the dishes is a 36-ounce rib eye (côte de boeuf) which arrives in the company of roasted market potatoes and asparagus, marrow, and a rich beefy sauce Diane. The dish, which will feed as many as four people, is normally $245 but if ordered before the end of June will set you back $195.
Cathédrale’s chocolate mousse has a back story of sorts. While on an R&D trip in Saint Nazaire, pastry chef Romain Cornu stumbled upon a simple yet compelling recipe for the dessert made almost entirely of top-quality chocolate and egg whites. The mere scent of it flooded his brain with treasured childhood memories of his grandmother’s kitchen and the love she wove into her mousse with every fold of the meringue. At Cathédrale, where it appears on the dessert menu as “Mamie Cornu Chocolate Mousse,” the sweet is presented as a large airy quenelle dappled with crunchy pieces of salted hazelnut.
A second outdoor dining space features a sloped retractable roof hung in vines and pots of greenery. It is, the website informs us, evocative of the alleyway backyards synonymous with the East Village.
Price range: $14 to $29 for hors d’oeuvre, $21 to $37 for appetizers, $38 to $96 for entrées, and $13 to $36 for dessert.
Cathédrale, 112 East 11th Street, 212-888-1093, is open Sunday to Thursday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. to midnight.
