Deux Chats Brings Parisian Romance—And a Lovely Lobster Roll—to Brooklyn

But that’s not to say Deux Chats (English translation: Two Cats) is overtly fanciful or Francophile. The design’s pièce de résistance is the tile mural of two cats perched upon the Williamsburg Savings Bank, backlit by the New York skyline and a full moon—a visual reminiscent of the Jazz Age illustrations that covered the New Yorker or Vanity Fair. “I wanted there to be a playful element to the tile work—so we ended up giving a New York twist to the classical art form of hand-painted tile work,” says Neidich. “There’s a feel to it of the Great Gatsby era. I had an image in my mind of a Gotham night view where you have dark buildings and yellow lights for windows.” (That green is just as reminiscent of a subway globe as it is a French’s children’s book.)

Photo: Melissa Hom

The menu focuses almost exclusively on raw bar offerings: chef Nicole Gajadha’s menus includes crudos, lobster rolls, clams, shrimp, snow crab legs, and oysters, all of which can be ordered a la carte or upon towering silver tiered seafood towers. There’s an extensive cocktail menu as well, but the Deux Chats-recommended drink of choice is an ice-cold martini, artfully poured into a conical glass by the Prince of Wales’s official glassmaker.

Deux Chats, which is open from 5 p.m. to 4 a.m., will cater to both a happy hour, dinner, and nightcap crowd, making it a stylish choice no matter the phase of the night. To adapt the Audrey Hepburn quote so often said about the city this restaurant is energized by: Perhaps Deux Chats is always a good idea.