Per Se – the blue door above Columbus Circle

On the fourth floor of the Deutsche Bank Center, where Columbus Circle's traffic circle meets the first green of Central Park, Thomas Keller built the New York address that carries his Yountville philosophy furthest from the vineyards. Thomas Keller opened Per Se in February 2004, and the restaurant has maintained three Michelin stars since the introduction of the New York City Guide in 2006 – it holds Three MICHELIN Stars to this day. Designed by Adam Tihany to draw together subtle references to The French Laundry and elements from both his and Keller's pasts, the room borrows its decorative blue entrance door directly from the original in Napa Valley. Behind it sits a 64-seat dining room with a neutral brown palette and silver accents, built around two nine-course tasting menus that change daily and are never repeated within a single meal.

01The room and the setting

The dining room occupies the top of what was once the Time Warner Center, now the Deutsche Bank Center, with floor-to-ceiling glass pulling in the traffic and trees of Columbus Circle and the park beyond. The 64-seat space, with its neutral brown palette and silver accents, feels more urbane and overtly ambitious than the pastoral calm of The French Laundry in Yountville, even as the two share a designer in Adam Tihany and the same blue front door. Beside the main room sits the Salon, a lounge of couches and low tables that takes walk-ins for a shorter menu rather than the full nine courses next door.

02The chef

Thomas Keller remains chef and proprietor, the architect of a kitchen that has run on the same classical French technique since 2004. Day to day, the brigade is led by Chad Palagi, Per Se's fourth chef de cuisine, a Napa Valley native who trained at the Napa Valley Cooking School in St Helena before joining Per Se as a commis in 2012. He rose to sous chef, left in 2017 to become chef de cuisine at Rich Table in San Francisco, and returned to lead the Per Se kitchen in early 2021. Pastry is overseen by Elaine Smyth, who has shaped the dessert programme since arriving in 2012, while Michel Couvreux directs the beverage team and John Jansma leads the sommeliers.

Insider tip

Jackets required; book the nine-course tasting or the Salon's four-course menu.

03The cooking

Two tasting menus run every night: a nine-course Chef's Tasting Menu and a nine-course Tasting of Vegetables, both built so that no single ingredient appears twice across the meal. The kitchen works from daily relationships with small farmers and foragers rather than a fixed seasonal calendar, redrawing both menus from what arrives each morning. The approach is classic French in its technique and American in its sourcing, precise rather than showy, with dishes composed to read as quietly as they are executed.

04What to order

The dish that never leaves is Oysters and Pearls: a sabayon of pearl tapioca layered with Island Creek oysters and white sturgeon caviar, unchanged since the restaurant opened and still the dish most diners remember afterwards. Beyond it, expect the kitchen's running set-pieces of tableside finishing and precise classical garnish that have defined the Keller style since The French Laundry, worked into whatever nine courses the day's tasting menu holds that evening.

05Wine and drinks

The cellar runs past 2,000 bottles, weighted towards older vintages and limited-production wines from small growers, chosen to serve a global clientele with wines from the world's major viticultural regions. Because the food changes daily, the sommelier team under John Jansma and beverage director Michel Couvreux works the full depth of the list nightly rather than leaning on a fixed pairing menu. For something shorter than wine, the house pours fine whiskies, single malts and classic cocktails, among them the Per Se Tonic & Gin.

06When to go and booking

Jackets are required throughout. Reservations run through the restaurant's own booking system, and the Salon additionally takes walk-ins for à la carte seating beside the Main Dining Room.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.