Luc’s Place

A new bistro puts hospitality and great food at the top of the menu.

By Kathryn Robinson

Photo: Geoffrey Smith

Stunning boeuf Bourguignon The dish is loaded with moist, ragged hunks of beef in rich sauce.

Consequently, Luc already conveys the seasoned identity of a joint three times its age, anchored by the roots of a very French family tree. An oversize portrait of Rautureau’s parents looks down from the north wall, a stirring mix of youthful libido and ’50s innocence. That’s Luc, Rautureau’s dad, a hardworking bulldozer driver from Brittany whose “beautiful, simple life” inspired both the restaurant and the classic simplicity of its menu.

It’s not hard to imagine Luc père savoring dishes like a juicy, loose-shanked steak-frites, flavorful in a peppercorn sauce alongside beef-flavored fries; or Rautureau’s stunning boeuf Bourguignon, loaded with moist ragged hunks of beef in a sauce fathomless with butter and beef stock and Burgundy. Chicken liver mousse, which little Thierry learned to make from his maternal grandmother, is a textbook version of the velvet spread. The halibut sandwich leafy with arugula and bound with gribiche —a cold French sauce of hard yolks emulsified with oil, then studded with shallots, capers, and herbs—would have pleased the good driver to no end, never mind that the exquisite Columbia City Bakery bread would’ve gone to pieces in his hands. Luc is a place where you can lick your fingers.

Newfangled flourishes are few but meaningful. Harissa electrifies the aioli, elevating a beef burger into an extraordinary beef burger. And those featherweight starters, souffle potato crisps, are not a classic of the French repertoire—yet. A labor-intensive regimen of blanching, cooling, and thrice-frying potatoes yields a crop of puffy fries, air-filled like souffles with moist, almost creamy interiors and impossibly crispy crusts. Best appetizer in the city right now, folks.

Food of this caliber establishes, in case anyone was wondering, that Rautureau is a great chef. But the diner’s experience eating that food—in this fine place, under such fond care, alongside all these folks… that’s what makes Luc a great restaurant.


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