Restaurant Florent, a namesake in the Meat Packing Districts, late night dinning scene – if drunken pommes frites, mac and cheese, and roulade of chicken breast qualifies as even “late night” – is closing its doors for good.
Florent was not a huge money maker, a landmark of New York, nor did Florent open his establishment looking to become a celebrity hot spot or institution; in fact quite the opposite. Florent Morellet opened 23 years ago, a reliable French bistro for all hours, welcoming all the transsexual prostitutes, nightlife kids freaking on tabs and weird sex pervs; and then the DB heaven of Meat Packing District moved in and swept the fun out of the hood. Florent continued to be that familiar afterhours joint to refill after a full on night of glory, similar to my youthful hangouts of Lyons in San Ramon, CA, Denny’s in Emeryville, or Nations in Daily City (only not nearly as good).
My few personal exploits at Florent were typically at unrespectable hours for any last drops of entertainment, character watching and imbibing I could squeeze out of the hole that is MPD. The closure of Florent is not personally lugubrious, but represents another death in the soul of a city that continues to clear established local merchants that support local art, culture and causes, by raising rents to house the cookie cutter clubs, big box pushing/high end conglomerates and stylishless touist traps. Only one more reason I don’t venture to far to the west side.
NY Times has a review of the restaurant people and history.
