Maison Passerelle Opens in Printemps in New York City
Who’s behind it: The first U.S. location of luxury French department store Printemps debuted last month in New York City. Located inside the Art Deco One Wall Street building in Manhattan’s Financial District, the department store features five dining options from rising restaurant group Kent Hospitality Group. The flagship is Maison Passerelle, led by chef Gregory Gourdet, a three-time James Beard award winner. As culinary director, Gourdet is responsible for the other dining options in Printemps as well, including an all-day café, a Champagne bar, a cocktail lounge and a raw bar. Kent Hospitality Group manages several high-profile restaurants across Manhattan, including Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence winners Crown Shy and Saga, as well as the “seafood-focused steak house” Time and Tide, which opened late last year.
When it opened: April 17, 2025
Why you should visit: Since 2019, Gourdet has been running his own acclaimed restaurant, the Haitian-influenced, live-fire destination Kann, in Portland, Oregon. Gourdet’s move to New York City to helm this venture is a homecoming for the chef, who grew up in Queens and cut his teeth at the restaurants of star chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
The 160-year-old brand Printemps is looking to energize in-person shopping in Downtown Manhattan with its eclectic, photo-worthy spaces and its laissez-faire approach of combining luxury and hospitality. A charming example of that approach: You can get a great glass of wine at any of the concepts in the building and while shopping—carts filled with sparkling wine, including crémant, Krug and Ruinart, roam the department store. Guests can also bring drinks from one of the multiple bars with them as they shop. “I’ve brought a drink into the dressing room before,” wine director Ren Neuman told Wine Spectator. “It’s this really fun intersection of French savoir faire and New York hospitality.”
[article-img-container][src=2025-04/restaurant-news-maison-passerelle-printemps-gregory-gourdet-041725_1600.jpg] [credit= (Heather Willensky)] [alt= Chef Gregory Gourdet][end: article-img-container]
The culinary approach: CMaison Passarelle is inspired by Gourdet’s research on how the former French colonies influenced French cuisine, and vice versa. His menu at Maison Passerelle builds on the culinary traditions of French Canada, Vietnam, West Africa and the West Indies, tying them to what many diners associate with French cuisine. These include a take on the West African spinach stew efo riro (made with a carmine palm oil, chiles and ginger) served with duck confit, or a Vietnamese-inspired salad of spring chicories, heightened with lemongrass, fish sauce and bird chiles and complemented by New York apples.
“Chef Gourdet’s food is soul-quenching,” says Neuman. “It just completely covers you in a warm blanket and fills you up.” Neuman emphasises that classic French wines work particularly well with Gourdet’s dishes. Some that come to mind for her are Alsatian whites, red Burgundies and blancs de blancs Champagne. “I’ve loved these classic wines because they’ve paired so well with many cuisines in my life,” she continues. “When I get to pair them with chef GG’s food, which is incredibly well-balanced, with thought-provoking spices, they pull you into a different realm.”
[article-img-container][src=2025-04/restaurant-news-maison-passerelle-printemps-interior-041725_1600.jpg] [credit= (Gieves Anderson for Printemps New York)] [alt= The interior of Maison Passerelle in Printemps in New York City][end: article-img-container]
The wine list: Currently sitting at around 250 bottles, the cellar at Maison Passerelle is the core of the wine program for all of the restaurants at Printemps. According to Neuman, the bulk of the list consists of French classics—Champagne, of course, as well as selections from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Alsace, the Loire and others—with a small portion for other Old World standbys and another for wines of the West Coast, with a special section devoted to the wines of Oregon (a nod to chef Gourdet’s work there). Producers that root that section, to Neuman, include powerhouses such as Beaux Frères, Bergström and Cristom, as well as up-and-comers like Dusoil and Antica Terra. Neuman hopes to grow the wine list to around 600 labels if possible.
Despite being housed at a luxury retailer, multiple bottles in most categories are available for under $100. “There’s a wine for everyone; it doesn’t have to be crazy,” says Neuman. “I want you to have Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and all of the cool things, but if you want to hang out with some Beaujolais on the table or some island wines, I want you to have fun with that too.”
The design: Visiting each of the dining options at Printemps requires walking through the store itself, which stands out compared to most modern shopping spaces for its maximalist style. Covering two floors and 55,000 square feet, the team at Printemps partnered with architect Laura Gonzalez to harness the unique design of the Art Deco One Wall Street building with a focus on sustainability—all of the furniture in Printemps is made with upcycled materials. The 85-seat Maison Passerelle itself is decorated with hand-painted tiles, kaleidoscopic stained glass, frescoes along the walls and intricately woven fabrics for the banquette seating.
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Maximalist Steak House Maple & Ash Expands to Miami
Who’s behind it: Chicago-based Maple Hospitality Group has branched out to Miami with the newest location of its steak house destination Maple & Ash. The restaurant is close to the Kaseya Center and the Pérez Art Museum in Downtown Miami. Known for their tongue-in-cheek approach to fine dining and American steak house culture, the Danny Grant–run restaurants feature signature experiences like the “I Don’t Give a F*@” tasting menu, during which guests let the chef take the reins of their meal. (In the corresponding wine pairing option, somms can go a bit off the beaten path.) The group operates two other Best of Award of Excellence–winning Maple & Ash locations: the flagship in Chicago and the follow-up in Scottsdale, Ariz., which opened in 2019.
The Miami spot was almost five years in the making, national director of wine and beverage Amy Mundwiler told Wine Spectator. “There’s just such a vibrant culture down there [in Miami], such a beautiful diversity of people. At Maple & Ash, we love to throw a good party and so does Miami.”
When it opened: March 25, 2025
Why you should know about it: Maple & Ash’s wine programs “try to be the best in their markets,” said Mundwiler. The Chicago location boasts more than 2,300 labels on its wine list, with the Scottsdale location offering close to 1,000. In a city with a strong wine and restaurant scene like Miami, an ambitious steak house such as Maple & Ash seems like a great fit, says Mundwiler, who plans to drastically expand the list, currently hovering at 450 different labels. “I want to do right by Miami and the people, and I want to give them what they’re asking for,” says Mundwiler.
[article-img-container][src=2025-04/restaurant-news-maple-and-ash-miami-interior-041725_1600.jpg] [credit= (WorldRedEye.com)] [alt= The interior of Maple and Ash in Miami with a beaded sculpture of a palm tree][end: article-img-container]
The wine list: Mundwiler noticed that Miami wine lovers are drawn toward the wines of South America, such as Malbecs, leading her to bring in top Chilean and Argentine wines, including those of Viña Cobos, Bodega Catena Zapata and Clos Apalta. More of a surprise to her was how much of a California Cabernet town Miami is, with diners ordering big Napa Cabs alongside oysters while dining outside. Selections from the likes of Inglenook, Shafer and Abreu will keep those customers happy. Burgundy also makes up a major portion of the wine list, as it does at the other Maple & Ash locations.
Throughout the list, Mundwilder and her wine team have interspersed stories of the winemakers and regions that excite them, with a freshly designed list filled with color photographs and helpful details. “We’re privileged [as wine professionals]; we can open up a wine list and know what to do, but most people don’t,” says Mundwiler. “Especially now, with the state of the wine world as it is, we can’t keep doing things the way we’ve done them in the past. We have to evolve.”
The culinary approach: Maple & Ash’s menu can be described as indulgent, with the new Miami location focusing more on seafood than its predecessors. Think lobster dumplings accented with oloroso Sherry, a selection of “raw and chilled” dishes such as bluefin tuna tartare with mango and chile oil, and the eye-catching, fire-roasted seafood tower, with everything from Manila clams to Alaskan king crab.
Of course, red meat is the focus of the back half of the menu, with classic wood-fired cuts like a 16-ounce rib eye; a 40-ounce, 45-day dry-aged tomahawk, and the restaurant’s signature 40-ounce, 32-day dry-aged porterhouse called “the Eisenhower.” The “butcher’s reserve” features exclusive cuts sourced from across the globe, from a tallow-aged WinterFrost wagyu from Omaha, Nebraska, to an olive-fed wagyu ribeye from Kagawa, Japan.
The design: For the interior of Maple & Ash Miami, Chicago-based firm Studio K created a lounge, salon, dining room—designed in a 1970s retro style, with thick fabric drapings, leather and velvet seatings and palm-inspired murals—and an atrium adorned with an “Upside Palm” decorated with 10,464 crystal beads. The restaurant features two “nooks” with signature experiences: the “Bar Bocuse,” focused on caviar, Champagne and jamón ibérico, or the “Petite Bocuse,” where guests can sample rare cuts of beef and other surprises from the kitchen.
What’s coming next? Later this summer, Maple Hospitality will open a second location of Eight Bar—a more casual spot serving sushi and American fare—below the Maple & Ash Miami outpost. There are plans to open another Maple & Ash location in New York City later this year.
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