A new restaurant and bar called Floradora has opened at 205 Thompson Street in the West Village, filling a 19th-century carriage house with warm wood interiors, Tiffany-style lighting, and a menu that swings from mozzarella sticks to a 72-hour slow-cooked American Wagyu steak au poivre. The two-story space is open for dinner and late-night service, with a late-night menu running until 12:45 a.m.
Floradora comes from the team behind Libertine, Chateau Royale, and Capitaine, according to WhatNow, and it occupies the very space that housed Chateau Royale, the opulent French steakhouse that co-founders Cody Pruitt and Jacob Cohen launched in the building in July 2025. That earlier concept, known for dishes like lobster thermidor and black cod with caviar beurre blanc, lasted just a year before closing, per the Resy Blog. The two-story property itself dates back further still, originally built in the late 1800s as a double-wide carriage house just south of Washington Square Park, a layout that still shapes the ground-floor bar room and second-floor dining room today.
Pruitt, who spent nearly a decade as general manager and beverage director at the natural wine bar Anfora before striking out on his own in the neighborhood, explained the pivot in blunt terms. Writing on the Raise a Glass to Dolly Substack, Pruitt said the decision to shutter Chateau Royale and launch Floradora came after realizing the original French fine-dining format felt “at odds” with how neighbors, friends, and the owners themselves actually preferred to eat and drink.
A Second Rapid Reinvention in 2026
Floradora is not the only recent about-face for Pruitt and Cohen. Just two months earlier, the pair closed their three-year-old West Village French bistro converted Libertine into the seafood tavern Capitaine, partnering with executive chef Mike Gutterman on a raw bar and a caviar sandwich on Japanese milk bread inspired by the Grand Central Oyster Bar. That flip mirrored the same logic now applied at 205 Thompson Street: trading formal, white-tablecloth French dining for something more casual and neighborhood-centric. Capitaine operates out of 684 Greenwich Street, a corner building that changed hands in March 2026 for $16.95 million, with the restaurant's lease reportedly extending through June 2034.
At Floradora, executive chef Vanessa Velez oversees a kitchen menu the restaurant describes as Italian-American comfort food layered with international flavors, drawing inspiration from New York dining culture and Italian-American history. Alongside the headline Wagyu steak au poivre, the menu includes an American Wagyu cheeseburger, French dip, and tuna melt, plus grilled sea bream, pastrami-spiced pork ribs, chicken paillard, pan-roasted salmon, and veal Milanese. Pasta options run from linguini and clams to tortellini alfredo with miso, oxtail lasagna, and spicy vodka garganelli with gochujang.
Snacks, Sides, and a Disco-Era Bar Program
Smaller plates lean into shareable, late-night territory, with lobster and jalapeño fritters, pigs in a blanket, salt and vinegar fritto misto, scallop crudo, mozzarella sticks, and spicy tuna rösti. Salads include a chopped salad, spicy noodle and cabbage salad, and cobb wedge, while sides feature pull-apart garlic bread served with stracciatella and chili crisp dips, plus classic and disco fries. Dessert options include key-lamansi pie, corn skillet cookie, bananas foster split, and peanut butter and malted milk tuxedo cake.
Pruitt developed Floradora's beverage program himself, built around disco-era and 1980s-inspired cocktails including the Giardiniera Gibson, Lychee Verper, June Bug, and the restaurant's namesake Floradora cocktail, made with gin, raspberry, ginger, cardamom, and soda water. That drink traces back to an 1899 London Edwardian musical comedy that transferred to Broadway in 1900 and inspired a gin, raspberry, lime, and ginger cocktail created for its chorus line of Florodora Girls, according to Wikipedia. Classic dry gin and dirty vodka martinis are available in mini and full-size pours. The wine list sticks to approachable Old World bottles from France, Italy, and Germany, including crémant de Loire, Lambrusco, Sancerre, Trebbiano, Chianti, and Aglianico by the glass, with all glass pours priced at $20 or less.
Vintage Décor and Hours to Know
The room's decor leans heavily into nostalgia, with more than 50 portraits of cultural figures joined by vintage film posters, art exhibition posters, and lithographs personally selected by Pruitt, as Patch reported. The ground-floor Bar Room is designated primarily for walk-in guests on a first-come, first-served basis, while the second-floor Club Room holds the majority of formal dining tables, per Floradora's booking guidelines on Resy. The full food menu is served on both floors, meaning late-night diners without a reservation can still eat at the bar.
Floradora is open Sundays and Mondays from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., and Thursdays through Saturdays from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. The restaurant is designed to serve bar drinks, dinner, and late-night cocktails, with weekend brunch expected eventually. Floradora is located at 205 Thompson Street in the West Village.
