Au Cheval Team Revives an Old Chicago Favorite in Paris
Chicago-based Hogsalt Hospitality expands to the City of Light with La Renommée
Not enough to have some of Chicago’s best restaurants, including Au Cheval with its famous griddled cheeseburger that has been named the best in America, Hogsalt Hospitality looks to create a name for itself across the pond.
A couple of weeks ago, the restaurant group quietly opened its first independent restaurant outside of the United States. La Renommée is named for the 200-year-old storefront it now occupies and aims to be a historic French restaurant with Chicago hospitality and a bit of old New York influence. This is according to Hogsalt owner Brendan Sodikoff, who I spoke with from Paris the day after the restaurant opened for an article in Crain’s Chicago Business.
The 42-seat restaurant, located at 95 Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris’ 1st Arrondissement close to both the Louvre and Les Halles, has a menu featuring classic French dishes like pot a feu (French beef stew), escargots de Bourgogne, sole Meunière, and linguine aux coques. It also has American fare such as New England crab cakes, New York strip steak, and the famous Au Cheval griddled double cheeseburger listed here as “West Village” style. The cocktail list highlights a variety of martinis and stirred drinks like an armagnac Old Fashioned and a Golden Negroni.
“You can get a martini and a steak or you can get pot a feu or classic French dishes,” Sodikoff said. “Or come in for one dish with a glass of wine and have a night.”
This opening also revives Maude’s Liquor Bar. “We brought her back home,” Sodikoff said, referring to the West Loop restaurant known for its French fare, seafood towers, and fabulous cocktails that closed in 2020 after nearly a decade. The 20-seat Maude’s, which is reserved for dining patrons, feels like a salon straight out the Belle Epoque.
During our call, I asked Sodikoff about the design. Instead of describing it, he hung up and sent me a couple of videos (both embedded here, the restaurant above, Maude’s below) and it’s gorgeous. If you’ve ever been to Hogsalt restaurants like Trivoli Tavern, Ciccio Mio, Bavette’s, or Au Cheval, you know Sodikoff is all about dark and sexy. That vibe carries through at La Renommée. You enter into the two-level space through a dark wood facade reminiscent of old Paris and pass by a small wine bar up front. That leads into an elegantly designed intimate dining room with dark wood walls, flooring and banquettes with brown leather seating, brass lighting, and framed classic paintings.
To get to Maude’s, descend a white marble staircase with burgundy carpeting near the front door that follows along pink rose-pattern wallpaper into the 20-seat subterranean cocktail lounge. Guests can linger before or after dinner on plush red couches with low tables with short pouf stools. The room has cavern-like archways adorned with globe lighting and whimsical art pieces like a stuffed peacock and a marble statue.
“It’s very historic in nature, very classic in design, but a little more modern,” Sodikoff said. “We have no expectations. We either fail quietly or bring something very warm and lovely to Paris. We’ve been fairly welcomed by the community and we’re hoping we can live up to that.”