About
A small dining room.
A long memory.
Open since 2018, serving the food we like to eat, for the kind of people we like to feed.
Maison Verde was opened in 2018by Hélène Marchand and her husband Daniel, in a former laundry storefront on Vine Street that they renovated, mostly themselves, over the better part of a year. Sixty-four seats. A charcoal grill. A chef’s counter facing the open pass. A back room they named for the wine they were drinking the night they signed the lease.
The food is bistro cooking in the way Lyon means the word — built on braises, pâtés, escargot, gratins, the kind of dishes that get better between Tuesday and Saturday because the stockpot has been on the stove all week. Hélène writes the menu in pencil. Tomás keeps a wine list of small French and upstate growers; if you ask him about Beaujolais after nine, you will not be permitted to leave.
We are not reinventing French cooking. We are trying to do it well, carefully, with the produce that came in that morning, and to be the kind of place a neighborhood is glad to have on its corner.
“Bistro cooking is mostly about heat and time, and showing up six nights a week.”
— Hélène Marchand, chef and co-owner
The people in the room.
Three names you'll see most evenings, and a kitchen and floor of others who make the place what it is.
Hélène Marchand
Chef & Co-Owner
Hélène trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and spent eight years at restaurants in Lyon and Burgundy before opening Maison Verde with her partner. She still drives to the Greenmarket every Saturday and writes the menu in pencil.
Tomás Vega
Wine Director
Tomás keeps a list that leans Old World, with a small section of natural wines from upstate growers he visits in person. Ask him about Beaujolais after 9pm and you will not be permitted to leave.
Priya Okafor
General Manager
Priya manages the room with the precision of someone who came up through three of the city's best restaurants. She remembers your name and the wine you liked last time. She is who to email about private events.
Where things come from.
- Greenmarket, Saturdays. Our produce comes from three farms we have worked with since opening — Norwich Meadows, Migliorelli, and Berried Treasures.
- Fish, daily. Whole fish from Greenpoint Fish & Lobster, picked up most mornings.
- Beef, dry-aged. Hanger and ribeye from Pat LaFrieda; we age the hanger eighteen days in our walk-in.
- Wine, small growers. Tomás visits the upstate vineyards he buys from. He will tell you about it if you ask.
Come for dinner. Stay for the second bottle.
Reserve a table