Le Jardinier New York – a greenhouse built on Lexington Avenue

Le Jardinier occupies the ground floor of the Selene tower, at the corner of Lexington Avenue and East 53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan. It opened in May 2019, built by chef Alain Verzeroli after two decades at Joël Robuchon's side, eleven of them running the three-Michelin-starred Tokyo flagship. The room, designed by the French architect Joseph Dirand, was his first full restaurant commission in New York, built into developer Aby Rosen's new tower on Lexington Avenue, and still reads as a greenhouse set down among Midtown's glass towers. Today the restaurant is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, its seasonal French menu led day-to-day by executive chef Bastian Schenk and pastry chef Salvatore Martone, under Verzeroli's continuing culinary direction. It sits within a group, The Bastion Collection, that also runs Le Jardinier outposts in Miami, Houston and Geneva, alongside L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Miami and Geneva.

01The room and the setting

Designed by the French architect Joseph Dirand, it was his first full restaurant commission in New York, built into developer Aby Rosen's new tower on Lexington Avenue. The result is a light-filled room for sixty-two guests, greenery standing in for the marble hush of the usual Midtown dining room. Dirand treated the space as a study in restraint, pairing unadorned materials with a sense of quiet abundance, an approach he has repeated in restaurants across Paris before bringing it to New York.

The tower itself was designed by Norman Foster for the developer Aby Rosen, and stands a few steps from Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building, in a part of Midtown that Dirand treated as a retreat from the street's usual pace.

02The chef

Verzeroli, born in Vietnam and raised in Paris, abandoned business school after his first meal in a Michelin-starred dining room convinced him to cook instead. He trained at the three-Michelin-starred Arpège before Joël Robuchon became his mentor for the next two decades. Eighteen years in Tokyo followed, with Robuchon's restaurant there holding three MICHELIN Stars for eleven consecutive years under his watch, before Verzeroli was asked to lead culinary direction for The Bastion Collection in New York.

Insider tip

Open Monday–Saturday; lunch Mon–Fri only, closed Sundays; reserve ahead for the November truffle menu.

When Robuchon died in August 2018, Verzeroli was asked to begin again from nothing. He took the idea to Aby Rosen, who had already signed Robuchon to the same address back in 2016 and backed Verzeroli's new concept without hesitation — Le Jardinier opened the following spring. Today the pass is run by executive chef Bastian Schenk and pastry chef Salvatore Martone, with Verzeroli continuing as culinary director across the group's restaurants.

03The cooking

The kitchen's philosophy was shaped as much by Japan as by France: after eighteen years immersed in Japanese culture, Verzeroli built Le Jardinier as a tribute to the seasonality that runs through that cuisine, with menus that shift as ingredients change rather than holding to a fixed repertoire. The technique stays French — wild and sustainable fish, meat and poultry are built around local, seasonal vegetables, herbs and greens rather than the other way round.

The restaurant's emblem is a bay leaf, chosen for a Mediterranean herb that keeps its fragrance and, in the kitchen's own words, has symbolised victory and grace through the ages — a small sign of the sourcing relationships with local farmers that underpin the seasonal menu.

04What to order

Reading the menu in October 2026, the kitchen was deep into its autumn rhythm. A five-night white truffle menu, running from 16 to 20 November, opens with a Foie Gras Royale finished with white port reduction, aged Parmesan emulsion and shaved white truffle, followed by a crest ravioli with quail egg, smoked duck and porcini duxelles. On the standing seasonal list, Le Pâté en Croûte layers veal and poultry with duck liver and fig chutney, and the Chicken al Albuféra pairs a poached breast with black truffle, cauliflower, foie gras and Port.

Among the mains, the Grilled Dover Sole for two arrives with sun-dried tomato, pine nuts and sherry vinegar, while an autumn risotto is built on king oyster mushroom confit and roasted mushroom cream. To finish, the Vegan Mont Blanc combines chestnut cream, vanilla chantilly and yuzu curd, and the Chocolate Cremeaux is made with Valrhona guanaja chocolate and cocoa nibs.

05Wine and drinks

Upstairs, Dirand turned to Art Deco for Bar Bastion, with velvet-upholstered banquettes, mirrored glass and double-height ceilings. It is built for after-work cocktails and late dinners, with weekly jazz from local musicians, and operates as the cocktail counterpoint to the restaurant's dining room below.

06The neighbourhood

Le Jardinier sits on the corner of Lexington Avenue and East 53rd Street, in a stretch of Midtown East that runs past Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building. The same address houses Bar Bastion above the restaurant and Sereine, the group's double-height event space, giving the whole ground floor and upper levels of the Selene tower over to one hospitality operation.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.