French Louie

It’s funny how your neighborhood becomes the lens through which you see the New York restaurant scene. When it’s twelve degrees outside and wind is slapping your face like Joan Crawford in “Mommy Dearest,” are you really going to trek to the Upper East Side from Brooklyn to check out a new two-star bistro? Or are you going to stay local and patronize a similar restaurant where everyone already knows you because you go so often?

French Louie is the kind of restaurant that you happily tumble into on such a day. Once you’re through heavy curtain that keeps the cold out, you’re in a warm, bustling, dimly-lit restaurant packed with locals all going to town on French fries and stiff brown drinks. We’ve been to French Louie with friends from L.A. We’ve been to French Louie before seeing Madonna at the Barclay’s Center (she was famously two hours late). I even went with the one-and-only Melissa Clark, who ordered these incredible fried anchovies as an appetizer.

The menu, unsurprisingly, is French (duh). The way to start is with the Gougères, which aren’t textbook; they’re more like cheesy dinner rolls. But they work.

You could also order the radishes with butter, another French staple with a nifty presentation.

As for the entrees, there are two that I really love. The steak frites, pictured at the top, is flawless. The steak is expertly cooked to a medium-rare (if that’s what you ask for) and the frites are almost always perfectly fried; they also come with a mussels dish (moules frites), another great pick.

But my surprise favorite is their vegetarian option: a socca, aka, a giant chickpea pancake, topped with assorted vegetables.

Not only is the pancake excellent in and of itself — crispy and savory and rich — it’s a beautiful canvas for different clusters of vegetables hidden here by lettuce leaves.

I’ve never really been disappointed in an entree at French Louie. The other night, before heading into the city for a show, I had this fish wrapped in grape leaves which was masterfully done.

How do you get fish perfectly cooked while wrapped in a grape leaf? You’ll have to ask the chefs at French Louie.

We don’t always get dessert, but when we do, they always hit the spot; especially these profiteroles, which are probably made with the same choux dough as the Gougéres.