Frenchette

Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson spent years laboring in Keith McNally’s brasserie empire, first at Balthazar and then Minetta Tavern, but with the opening of this long-awaited Tribeca venture, they finally have a place to call their own. The sleek, noisy, wood-trimmed space lacks a little of the famous McNally touch, but this is a chef’s operation, not a crowd-pleasing, front-of-the-house one, and the menu is chock-full of all sorts of elemental pleasures drawn from the old French canon. The crackly skinned, drippings-soaked “Poulet Roti” for two is a thing of beauty, as are the filet au poivre, and an ingenious new addition to the cannon, called “Duck Frites.” The classic desserts are first rate too (Paris-Brest, tarte Tatin for two), and pay attention to any dish involving that most elemental and finicky of barnyard ingredients, the egg.