A popular French restaurant in the West Village will serve its last escargots as the restaurant’s owner retires after more than four decades, Side Dish has learned.
La Ripaille – which has attracted celebrities and francophiles since 1980, long before the neighborhood became trendy – has been sold along with the building that houses the restaurant at 605 Hudson St., chef-owner Alain Laurent said in an exclusive interview.
“Time to pass the torch,” said the 70-year-old Frenchman. “To run a restaurant for 44 years is exhausting.”
Over the years, Laurent’s famous guest book has been signed by a who’s who of figures.
Leo DiCaprio, Anne Hathaway and Sylvester Stallone, football legend Pelé and baseball great Derek Jeter, pop star Madonna and writer Salmon Rushdie have all at one time squeezed into a strange restaurant, which features 14 tables holding around 40 seats.
The name, La Ripaille, comes from the old French expression, “faire ripaille,” which means feast. And that’s what the diners have done in a dish that includes Laurent’s original creation – broccoli mousse.
Other magical menu options include traditional cassoulet, escargots Laurent method – out of the shell with basil, cream, tomato and butter – along with wild mushroom flambee in cognac in puff pastry, ravioli de homard, branzino with ginger, and, of course, filet mignon au poivre et frites.
But the day-to-day running of this busy restaurant takes its toll on Laurent and his family, he said.
“I am in the restaurant six, seven days a week, and on all holidays, including Christmas, New Year, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, and now I want to have a different version of winter with my wife, my children and my grandson (aged seven months) ,” said Laurent.
“I hope my kids will take it, but they see the sacrifices they’ve made and say they’re not going to do it.”
Laurent started his career in banking. But after her sister followed her boyfriend to New York, Laurent arrived. He loved French food, so he worked in a French restaurant – first as a busboy, then as a waiter.
“It was very exhilarating,” Laurent said. “Then I thought, if I can work for other people, I think I can do it myself. I was with my brother. We started looking for a place. When we found this, I said, ‘This is it!’
The West Village was a different place when Laurent first opened La Rapaille, with the nearby Meatpacking District filled with prostitutes.
The restaurant is slowly gaining a following by word of mouth. Then came the reviews. First from New York magazine, and they took it from there.
He bought the five-story building that housed the restaurant, along with 10 rental units above, for $900,000 in 1986.
Now, Laurent is putting the 10,124-square-foot property on the market for $17 million, according to the broker.
Laurent’s neighbors include billionaire Mets owner and hedge fund titan Steve Cohen, who lived in a triplex next door at 607 Hudson Street before selling it for $30 million in 2019. (It will sell again for $33.5 million in 2021.)
Bravo’s Andy Cohen lives nearby, and is often seen having lunch at La Rapaille with his BFF, Sarah Jessica Parker.
Whoever buys the building will get a West Village mixed-use building overlooking Abington Square that’s also close to Google headquarters and Hudson River Park, as well as art galleries and the Whitney Museum.
“I think it’s going to be a nice private members’ club,” said Laurie Cooper, who is the co-listing broker along with Daniela Rivoir and Michael Cooper, all of Douglas Elliman.
