Petite Abeille

While trips to new cities tend to revolve around lunch and dinner I’m just as happy to explore the breakfast options. Leaving at 12:30 on the last day of my trip to New York meant that breakfast was the only food option, apart from the odd cereal bar or apple, until I got off the coach at 5 o’clock. With that in mind I was looking for somewhere that hopefully did something for breakfast a little different from the norm and I happily found that in Petite Abeille.

Petite Abeille (little bee) so named because ”her mischievous ways remind us that life should be lived with abandon” is a Belgian eatery in four locations in Manhattan. The company was founded by Yves Jadot in 1995 and the first location opened was on West 17th Street in Chelsea which was the site I visited. The narrow restaurant has a coffee and patisserie counter to the left of the front door as you enter. Walking further past the narrow galley and a few tall tables leads to the more formal café space at the rear. 

The Belgian theme is played out in the decor with the small tables set with typical blue and white tablecloths with nods to popular Belgian culture round the restaurant walls. The back wall of the restaurant has a sketch of Charlier and Giraud’s Mike Blueberry wishing diners a “Bon Appetit”. There are many contributions acknowledging Tintin, Brussels born Georges Remi’s cub reporter. This includes black and white prints and copies of the Tintin books (in French and English) in the front room and cover art from The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Black Island, Prince Ottokar’s Sceptre and The Broken Ear decorating the walls in the back. The waiter’s slicked back hair gave him the appearance of a Hergé character although it's probably extrapolating too far to suggest that was the intention.

Foodwise, it was a toss-up between poffertjes or a waffle to start. Judging by the prices the Liege waffle was likely to be the smallest of the waffle choices so that was my choice. The dense, chewy waffle dusted with icing sugar was piping hot and tooth-tinglingly sweet but very, very moreish. 

The main event and the reason for choosing Petite Abeille was cocotte. This was a good filing bowl of food building from a base of diced tomato, heaped goats’s cheese and strips of bacon under two lightly cooked eggs that were topped with an intensely cheesy Gruyère crust. The softly cooked egg yolks did their usual happy trick of softening the harsher tastes and making every mouthful richer. The dish of cocotte was served with a mesclun salad with a light basil vinaigrette dressing and stoemp. This blend of mashed potato and leek was new to me but really lovely. All in all, a great way to start any day.

La Petite Abeille came across as a business that had found its niche and was totally content with it. I loved the relaxed feel of the restaurant and the food was definitely good enough to tempt me back again to try other things. The half price Belgian beer night on Mondays or the “Moules a go-go” all you can eat mussels nights on Wednesdays sound quite tempting.

As a disclaimer, I don’t think my childhood enjoyment of the Tintin books had any influence on my enjoyment of the food. It was purely a nice coincidence.

Overall Rating - 3.5/5