A familiar glow
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Arriving at the hostess stand at Pastis in Wynwood, one can be forgiven for feeling nostalgic, if not disoriented. Might you be standing inside New York City’s legendary Meatpacking District restaurant? There are the familiar dove gray mosaic floors, glistening subway tile columns, and those trademark distressed mirrors angled to reflect the dining room, with its red leather banquettes, and the fabulous diners they hold. Even those forever-lunging rugby players immortalized in faux-vintage posters made the trip south.
Then again, even the Pastis in New York City today is a reincarnation of the original NYC outpost, which itself was restaurateur Keith McNally’s facsimile of an idealized Parisian bistro. So this hall of mirrors effect feels downright appropriate. The restaurant reopened in NYC in 2019 after a five-year hiatus, just a block from the original and in partnership with restaurateur Stephen Starr (Le Zoo, Steak 954, et al). Miami’s Pastis, which arrived last spring, is the first outside those cobblestoned Manhattan blocks (DC followed, Dallas is rumored next).
C’est la vie, might as well follow the hostess to one of those banquettes to bathe in the soft, amber-tinged light that McNally long ago perfected. Of course, to the young and uninitiated — and perhaps the Miamian — a meal here need not be loaded with such heavy freight. The menu, nearly identical to the original, features beautifully prepared French fare, from oysters and escargots to the classical ooey-gooey delight of onion soup gratinee and a tender filet au poivre with a perfect crusty sear. And frites! One mustn’t forget about the frites.
It all prompts the question: What, if anything, is different about this one? A large outdoor patio, covered in rattan chairs, red scallop-edged umbrellas, and a wood-flanked bar, adding a dash of Saint-Tropez to the winning Parisian formula. It begs you, on a balmy night, to linger longer over one last cocktail and soak up an entirely new experience of the wonderfully familiar. –Shayne Benowitz
→ Pastis (Wynwood) • 380 NW 26th St • Mon-Wed 1130a-11p, Thurs-Fri 1130a-12a, Sat 10a-12a, Sun 10a-11p • Reserve.