Open since April of 2003, Nice-Matin has become the Balthazar of the Upper West Side. There’s a breakfast crowd, and a late-night crowd, and on clement weekends, the stretch of tables along Amsterdam is invariably filled—and not only by locals. The food, prepared by Andy d’Amico (formerly of Sign of the Dove), reflects the restaurant’s name: a veritable “best of ProvenÁal” list of crowd favorites. Late at night, after a B’way show or a concert at Lincoln Center, Nice-Matin serves a perfectly fine beet salad and delicious dried fava been hummus—and the frites are a salty, crispy joy. At that hour, the crowd has a kind of bonhomie, and the lighting gives off a rosy glow—and while the servers can be forgetful, and occasionally even idiotic, there’s too much that’s right in this convivial room to raise too much of a fuss. Order a tarte aux pommes instead—because much like its sister restaurant, Marseille on 44th Street (also run by owner/partner Simon Oren), Nice-Matin provides the West Side with some of the best parts of France’s joie de vivre.

Best always,
Mark and Robert