London has had its fair share of glossy New York imports in recent years, but Buvette is arriving with a more laissez faire attitude.
The French-inspired West Village restaurant from James Beard Award-winning chef Jody Williams has plenty of Manhattan pizazz, but little of the showy, OTT theatre that tends to follow transatlantic openings. Instead, the new all-day restaurant – which opens in Neal’s Yard on June 4 – is chic, compact and laidback, with a long marble bar, close-set tables and a drop-in waiting list scribbled on the doorframe.
This isn’t Buvette’s first London rodeo. Williams opened a version of the restaurant in Notting Hill during the pandemic, which went into administration in 2023. “Thank god, I don’t have to open in Covid,” she tells Broadsheet. “That was a real sink. You want to do something you’re committed to, and you want it to be the best it can. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose.”
This time, Buvette is set in a building with almost 400 years of history, with two entrances – one from Neal’s Yard and another from Shorts Gardens – outdoor tables, exposed brick and a vintage tin ceiling.
For Williams, the allure of Neal’s Yard is partly its storied past, and partly its neighbourhood feel. “My roots are in the West Village,” she says. “We want to create places where we want to be. We want that in our neighbourhood. Neal’s Yard has some similarities. There’s this sense of history here.”
Since opening Williams opened Buvette in 2011 (it now also has branches in Tokyo and Seoul), the chef has defined the restaurant as a “gastrothèque”. What does that mean? “Buvette, in itself, is just a place to eat and drink,” says Williams. “It’s the kind of place where you squeeze in.” It is, she adds, her attempt to take some of the formality out of a restaurant. “If a bar had great food, that’s where I’d want to be.”
Buvette will run from morning to night, going from coffee, croissants and warm madeleines into brunch, lunch, aperitif hour and dinner.
Breakfast and brunch include steamed eggs served with smoked salmon and crème fraîche, as well as a buttermilk waffle sandwich with egg, bacon, gruyère and maple syrup.
Later in the day, the menu offers salade niçoise, carrot râpées, steak tartare, tartines and coq au vin with skinny frites, plus a cassoulet planned for chillier months.
There are plenty of Buvette signatures, too: croque monsieur with ham and gruyère, croque forestier with roasted mushrooms, tarte tatin on the bar, radishes with butter and salt, and the option to spoon caviar over scrambled eggs.
“I love simple things. I love highs and lows,” says Williams. “I want to be in a place where I can have a bottle of champagne with scrambled eggs with caviar, if that’s my day. Day or night, we always have caviar to spoon on top of things. Why not?”
Over time, the London menu will also adapt to its setting, as Williams is particularly excited about getting reacquainted with British produce. “The ingredients that are coming around here are really inspiring and different and really excellent,” she says. “You’re just embedded in seasonality. We’re neighbours with Neal’s Yard Dairy. How lucky can I be?”
The wine list is heavy on bottles from across the channel, with crémants, aligoté, rosé and beaujolais, while cocktails include Martinis, Kirs and a cognac-based French 75.
Williams hopes the London site will be as much about drinking as it is dining. “You guys are great eaters and drinkers,” she says. “This is a great place to drink. You can come in and have excellent coffee. I’m the church of Italian espresso culture. Whether it’s coffee or drinks or booze or making a great cocktail, I think that’s going to be the thing here.”
Desserts include a cutesy cafe gourmand: espresso served with a miniature crème brûlée, dense hand-whipped chocolate mousse, whipped cream and a small biscuit. “That’s what Buvette does so well,” says Williams. “It’s not too much. It’s not too little. It’s the perfect amount.”
Buvette opens on 4 June. Reservations open June 3.
Buvette
2 Neal’s Yard, WC2H 9DP
Hours:
Mon to Wed, Sun 8am–9pm
Thu to Sat 8am–10pm
