Cercle Rouge – TriBeCa
241 W. Broadway
New York , NY
(212) 226.6252
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VdV Rating: 3.5
Food: French
PRO: Very authentic, causal French, and awesome wings!
CON: Not much
So what’d we decide to eat in NYC the day before leaving for France? French food, bien sur! Talk about bringing sand to the beach. But just to throw in a dumb curveball, we order…Chicken Wings! Hey, they had them as a special, don’t blame us.
So this place is authentic French. Done deal. Georges Forgeois knows his stuff, I believe this is his fourth or fifth spot in NYC. From the slight attitude (hey, they’re French), to the the design & ambiance. You know. And if you don’t, get yer fat white yankee ass to Paris and find out. Then thank vdV.
It was a humid mo-fo in nyc, so we sat inside although there’s beau coup outdoor seating. I just didn’t want to sweat my ass off. And yes, we grabbed two seats at the bar. Allors! And went in for some vino. And we worked that wine list like our bitch. Sancerre, Chablis, Burgundy, oh my!
And then we went for a lite lunch, even though it was 5p and we had not one morsel of food in our bellies all day. Since that 2a pizza pie at Pulinos, that is. Still, that’s 15 hours!
So we ordered the Seared Tuna Salad ($14), which came on a bed of Friseé, which we usually hate. I call it throat-tickler lettuce. But for some reason it really worked. The tuna was plentiful, fresh and seared spot-on, with a very light vinaigrette, red and golden beets, which reminded us of the simple, fresh salads we enjoyed each day in Paris. Just something about the freshness of the ingredients and basic-ness of it all. Gigiddy.
And then, the Cercle Wings ($10), their Houe Special Chicken Wings. Holy crap! Where do they raise these bizarro chickens? They are the plumpest little drumsticks ever. It’s like you dip a little chicken bone into a swirling cauldron of chicken and out pops this masterpiece. Kinda like making
chicken cotton candy at the county fair. Woo Hoo!
Hey, these wings kick ass. There’s only 4 of the little suckers, but ya get tons of plump, tender, juicy meat, with light breading and, by French standards, some good heat. I mean, not like sports bar spicy wings, but give these people a break, they wave a white flag if you look at ‘em sideways! Just Joking, my Francophile comrades. VdV loves the crap outta you. The wings are served with the thickest blue cheese ever. It worked. I would come back here just because of these wings. This is some seriously tasty bird.
So what did we really think? Check out the before and after:
