There is no shortage of French restaurants in New York City, especially on the affluent cobblestone streets of the West Village. With each generation of New Yorkers, a new guard of restaurants has attempted to present French food to the American public—but one that prides itself on being more sophisticated and sophisticated than the average flag-waver.

A key member of this new guard is currently Cody Pruitt, beverage director and partner at Libertine. When Pruitt teamed up with chef and partner Max Mackinnon to open their restaurant last year, it immediately became a hot spot. It was impossible to get a table (I knew it…), and over a year later, this hip bistro is still going strong. Pruitt was kind enough to share some of his views on the French restaurant scene in New York and how his relationship with France has shaped one of the most sought-after tables in New York.

As a child, Pruitt’s family spent most summers and other holidays in France, particularly in the small Burgundian village of Saint-Père-sous-Vézelay. His mother, who had studied medieval history in college, loved to take them to castles and cathedrals around the country and to visit small Holiday homes And Inns during their travels. When Pruitt returned to the United States, he was already disappointed by the French restaurants in his hometown of New York as a child of eight or nine.

As an adult, he continued to travel to France on his own, exploring the neo-bistro movement and the burgeoning natural wine scene, both of which had an undeniable influence on his eating and drinking habits. “Libertine is, for me, the four-walled and very physical proof of that influence and inspiration,” he explained, “the factual proof of what I took home with me as a young child and then carried with me as frustration with New York and American-French restaurants in general.”

For Libertine, this manifested itself in a menu that highlights classic and regional French bistro dishes, along with a beverage program consisting entirely of French wines and spirits. Pruitt chose to avoid cliches like French onion soup and salade niçoise, instead favoring lesser-known dishes like saucisse purée and oeufs mayonnaise that convey more of a traditional bistro experience. “We don’t have fries,” he told me. “I didn’t want to offer steak on the menu. Although bistros in France do offer fries and steaks. We wanted to draw the line, so to speak, and highlight lesser-known preparations or encourage the innate creativity that those people are allowed to have. For me, what we served was just as important as what we didn’t serve.”

Pruitt is someone who chooses his words carefully: bistro, brasserie, restaurant, wine bar and café all have their own meaning in his world. And at Libertine you are in the middle of the world of the bistro.

“I always thought that the concept of a bistro was lost in the transition from France to America,” explains Pruitt. “Today in America, if something is called a bistro, it means it has no tablecloths or is more casual. But to me, bistro food was locavore. It was grandmother’s food, which was very local. Bistros were places where people went all day.”

Although he (rightly) considers the notion of authenticity to be a “loaded concept,” Pruitt expressed gratitude that people viewed his restaurant as a reliable counterpart to what they would find in the bistros of Paris or the French regions.

“Libertine is in many ways a reaction to the restaurants that call themselves French,” Pruitt said, “and to this nebulous concept of the ‘French restaurant’ in America. You look at all these other places and they have, like, nine different steaks on the menu. At this point, it’s Peter Luger’s with a Pepé Le Pew accent. For us, the gap we fill is essentially trying our best to be French by not trying to do too much.”

Cody Pruitt’s thoughts on reservation culture

With reservation culture dominating the restaurant scene, nowhere more so than in New York, having a restaurant that’s impossible to get into is both a blessing and a curse. “While I’m happy about all the publications that have covered us and all the attention we’ve gotten, it’s been a little frustrating that most of the conversations about us have been about how to get in or where to go if you can’t get in,” Pruitt commented. But as the tide turns (and getting a table at Libertine is no longer a Sisyphean task), he’s grateful for a new crop of regulars, the kind any French bistro would attract. “Now I’m really excited to welcome more people from the neighborhood or French people or Francophiles who actually want to experience what we do, and not just because we’re new. It’s a very satisfying transition.”

Pruitt’s favorite restaurants in France

With all that bistro talk over, let’s turn our attention to some of the places that may have had a hand in Libertine’s final form. Pruitt says his favorite restaurants in Paris right now are Septime, the trendy, Michelin-starred neo-bistro with a focus on sustainability; Le Rigmarole, where a husband-and-wife team behind a Japanese binchotan grill serves one of Paris’ most popular tasting menus; and Le Bistrot Paul Bert, the old-fashioned Parisian haunt whose big portions of classic French dishes keep people coming back. But it’s Le Saint Eutrope in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne that Pruitt calls the “archetypal perfect bistro.”

“I think the beauty of French and authentic European neighborhood restaurants, whether they’re bistros or otherwise, is that they’re anything but over-the-top. They’re usually quite simple in their preparation and presentation and remain humble in their approach.”

Prices, location and atmosphere

If you’ve ever been to Libertine, you know that despite Pruitt’s talk of humble preparation and neighborhood vibes, the place is downright chic. The last time I wrote about the restaurant, I commented on a waiter’s impassioned demand that we get comfortable because the place was so, so casual, just a small local bistro where we could put our elbows on the table. Despite the quality of the food, that attitude gave me pause. A restaurant in one of New York’s most expensive neighborhoods, its floor tiles patched with bare concrete, seemed to be trying a little too hard to appear relaxed. And while a chalkboard menu might be charmingly provincial, the $25 glasses of wine listed on it are…not so much.

After all, French restaurants in the United States have always been associated with nobility and big shots, and many unscrupulous restaurant owners have fostered that reputation because they have so often been able to charge excessive prices for inferior food with impunity. But even the cynic in me was ready to hear Pruitt’s pricing strategy.

“We’re not necessarily at the same price point as the Paris Corner bistros,” he acknowledged. “But I knew I wanted to offer a certain caliber and standard of ingredients that are extraordinarily expensive here, and that the prices had to match that standard. I knew I had to do that in a neighborhood with a certain kind of affluent demographic. We already had a small clientele in the West Village, and we wanted to be able to serve them, and it was also the market we knew. So it was definitely safer, but it was also strategic and prudent for us to do it. Of course, if you told me to open a restaurant in the East Village, I don’t think it’s the same demographic. And I don’t think we could do Libertine as well if we had to do it over there.”

So what’s currently on the menu at Libertine?

Libertine’s chalkboard menu isn’t available online or on their Instagram page, but classics include a house salad with herbs and a Sauvignon vinaigrette, a scallop and seaweed dish reminiscent of scallops, tartare de boeuf, gnocchi Parisienne, oeufs mayo, and saucisse purée. You’ll also likely find some sort of offal dish, like sweetbreads. As the seasons change, elements of the dishes evolve, but most of the items on Libertine’s small menu remain the same—and, of course, are best paired with a fine French natural wine from Pruitt’s carefully curated list.

Catherine Rickman is a writer, professional Francophile, and host of the podcast Expat Horror Stories. She’s currently somewhere in Brooklyn with a fork in one hand and a pen in the other, and you can follow her adventures on Instagram @catrickman or on TikTok @catinthekitchen.