Restaurant lo Pont — Restaurant in Sort

They share the job of executive chef at their second restaurant, Le Crocodile, also in Brooklyn. This is probably fortunate for them, given how popular the place has become since it opened in December. It is definitely fortunate for us, because another thing Mr. O’Neal and Mr. Leiber apparently agree about is how the food at a modern New York brasserie should look and taste.

The menu’s long, single page cascades from one category of appetizer to the next, from shellfish to snails, before arriving, about midway down, at Entrées. That’s a head fake: the word is used in the French sense, and denotes more appetizers. Ten main courses follow, under Plats Principaux, and then come a dozen desserts that more or less describe themselves: profiteroles, chocolate pot de crème, a cheerfully sour lemon tart. There are so many dishes you’re not quite sure at first whether two guys whose best-known creation is a pancake will be able to keep up. They do that and then some. Nearly everything I’ve had at Le Crocodile has made me want to come back for more.

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This is not the easiest feat in a genre as thoroughly pawed-over and cliché-ridden as brasserie food, although to be precise we are dealing here with New York City’s peculiar notion of brasserie food. In a New York brasserie you almost never see choucroute, but you may well see Jonah crab salad, which at Le Crocodile, is stirred with yuzukosho mayonnaise and sits on a cushion of avocado purée. It’s delicious. So are other cold things from the raw bar: sea scallops in a spicy green pool of parsley juice, herbs and lemon; Wellfleet oysters, their deep pearly cups holding a splash or two of bay water.



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The industrial bones of the Wythe Hotel are the backdrop for Le Crocodile, a new brasserie.Credit...Daniel Krieger for The New York Times

Despite this distinctly broad-minded understanding of brasserie cooking, though, Mr. O’Neal and Mr. Leiber do get in a lot of recipes that either come from France or make you think of it. Onion soup is mandatory in a place like this, but Le Crocodile makes it pull its own weight. The broth is almost velvety, fortified by lardons, and there are good crunchy mouthfuls of toasted sourdough croutons instead of the usual limp blobs of drowned bread.

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Pickled mussels, plump and orange, nod distantly to the plate of herring at every other brasserie in France, down to the pickled onions and carrots that ride along. Cold leeks in vinaigrette make an appearance, too, though they’ve undergone a little remodeling: trimmed into bite-size segments that are stood on end in a foundation of ravigote sauce and then covered with toasted hazelnuts.

There’s a sort of salade lyonnaise — I say sort of because the lardons you’d find in Lyon have been replaced by smoked eel. The idea is great; the salad is smokier than the original, and with the wonderful added oily softness of the eel. In its framework, it is not too different from the smoked-herring Caesar found at M. Wells Steakhouse, and before that at the original, too-pure-to-last M. Wells in a stainless-steel diner. They share the job of executive chef at their second restaurant, Le Crocodile, also in Brooklyn. This is probably fortunate for them, given how popular the place has become since it opened in December. It is definitely fortunate for us, because another thing Mr. O’Neal and Mr. Leiber apparently agree about is how the food at a modern New York brasserie should look and taste.

The menu’s long, single page cascades from one category of appetizer to the next, from shellfish to snails, before arriving, about midway down, at Entrées. That’s a head fake: the word is used in the French sense, and denotes more appetizers. Ten main courses follow, under Plats Principaux, and then come a dozen desserts that more or less describe themselves: profiteroles, chocolate pot de crème, a cheerfully sour lemon tart. There are so many dishes you’re not quite sure at first whether two guys...

Subí ayer a Sort con mis amigos a comprar lotería y venimos aquí a comer ya que tenía buenas reseñas, pero la verdad que he salido bastante decepcionado, pedimos huevos rotos y bravas de picoteo, 3 entrecots y un menú del día (fideuá y escalopines concretamente), los huevos rotos estaban bien, pero las bravas se notaban a la legua que eran de bolsa congelada y la salsa de bote, los entrecots la única queja que oí de mis compañeros fue que estaban crudos y lo tuvieron que pasar 2 veces más por la plancha. La fideuá a primera vista ya se veía que era la típica fideuá precocinada que se compra en cualquier supermercado, el pan también era congelado, ya que se le caía toda la costra y se quedaba solo la molla, y los escalopines más de lo mismo, congelados. El baño no está adaptado para personas con discapacidades ya que hay un escalón para acceder al pasillo del servicio (muy estrecho el pasillo tengo que decir) y tuve que ayudar a un anciano con andador a acceder al servicio ya que ningún empleado se dignó a mirarle siquiera. Después, a la hora de pagar estuve delante de la caja esperando 10 minutos a que me cobraran pero el encargado de sala imagino que era, les dijo a los demás camareros que fuesen preparando las mesas para los clientes que venían nuevos, estaban más ocupados haciendo hueco para nuevos comensales que en atender a los que ya tenían. La verdad que para el precio que tienen 22€ el menú en sala y 23€ en la terraza respectivamente, me parece que la calidad no es para nada acorde al precio que tienen. Suelo pasar por Sort varias veces al año ya que es zona de paso motera, pero la verdad que no volveré a comer en este sitio, salí muy decepcionado, y si me preguntan por él no lo...

Bon déjeuner estival en famille. Le restaurant était plein mais en attendant quelques minutes, des tables se sont libérées en terrasse, en bord de route mais elle n'est pas très fréquentée. Nous avons pris plusieurs formules du midi, qui proposent deux plats et un dessert parmi un choix très varié (majoritairement carné tout de même). Par exemple, notre choix s'est porté sur un risotto au fromage, fideua au calamar et salade au brie, graines et crudités dans un premier temps ; puis lapin braisé, agneau grillé et cabillaud sauce tomate ; et enfin crêpe à la confiture, glace vanille et chocolat et le traditionnel mel i mato. Les plats étaient globalement bons et la quantité suffisante à la fin du repas. Un plat apporté n'était pas le bon, mais nous nous en sommes accommodés. Le lapin était un peu sec et avec une présentation peu appétissante, mais surtout une petite déception au niveau des desserts : la glace était une préparation industrielle, et le miel du mel i mato ne semblait pas non plus très artisanal... Je pense que ce n'est pas un restaurant pour lequel on peut compter sur des produits de qualité, mais ils sont bien cuisinés. Le serveur était très aimable ! Attention, pour les Français, les deux choix du menu ne sont pas vraiment une entrée et un plat, mais plutôt deux petits plats qui forment un repas complet : les viandes sont souvent servies sans accompagnement type féculent ou...