Cornichon
CUISINE: French Winebar/Cafe
ADDRESS: 251 Grand Street between Driggs and Roebling
PHONE: 718.599.3840
CARDS: All major
HOURS: Mon-Thurs: 5pm to midnight; Fri: 5pm to 1am;
Sat 10am to 1am; Sun 10am to midnight
BRUNCH: saturday and sundays
BOOZE: Full bar
OUTDOOR DINING: Yes
SUBWAY: L to Bedford Ave; J, M, Z to Marcy Ave
MAP: Click Here
MENU: Click Here
WEB: www.cafecornichon.com
DELIVERY: Yes
L MAG SAYS: Last Friday I ate and drank at Cornichon, a new wine bar/cafe/small plates restaurant on Grand Street in Williamsburg. What they sell is terrific--lovingly presented cheese and meat plates, cheap bottles of good French wines--but the decor made it seem as if they had rushed to open a week before they finished decorating, and then just decided against finishing. The front and back are pretty attractive--lots of pale, neutral greens and blonde wood--but the spacious area in the back (where my friends and I stayed well into the night, and were always the only people there) felt like a spare afterthought, with naked wooden tables, benches, empty dark green walls, and that's it. Right angles and right angles and unset tables. The food was so carefully prepared--the crudite salad arranged with wedges of boiled egg, ruby cherry tomato halves, and slivers of avocado, drizzled delicately with some kind of rich, opaque dressing--that it's mysterious why more consideration hasn't yet gone into making the place more comfortable. But the owners (all French) were sweet and eager to please (they gave us free Champagne and encouraged us to sign the mailing list) that if they softened some of the pointy, lonely edges, I'd happily go back. Especially in the summer, when their lovely back patio opens for warm-weather wine. Like white zinfandel.
