Normally one would need an invitation to Marie Antoinette’s bedchamber, but now anyone who crosses the East River can enter the queen’s inner sanctum. Tucked beneath Chez Moi in Brooklyn Heights is a new Marie Antoinette-themed bar, Le Boudoir.
Not unlike the queen’s original boudior, guests enter by way of a bookcase, make their way through a secret passage, and wind up in underground rooms left behind by the old Atlantic Avenue subway tunnels, hidden below the restaurant.
The bar is a fitting ode to femininity, filled with velvet banquettes, 18th-century oil paintings (reproductions, of course), a Steinway piano, pink sconces sourced from French chateaus, and at least one piece of real Versailles history—a doorknob from the palace. The bathrooms are selfie-worthy replicas of the young queen's private powder room.
The cocktails—worthy of a queen and served in crystal or silver-plated goblets—were created by Franky Marshall, formerly of NYC cocktail havens The Dead Rabbit and Clover Club, and include options like the mescal-and-scotch based “Guillotine,” the “1793” made with toasted sunflower seed infused rye, and the absinthe-based “Dauphin.” There is a snack menu worthy of royalty, too, including truffle mushroom croquettes, frog’s legs, pate, and garlic-and-parmesan French fries.
In what can only be described as an extreme oversight, cake is not on the menu.
