A new French bistro and cocktail bar has landed on Bedford Street in the West Village, pouring $14 mini Martinis alongside French onion grilled cheese and steak frites. Bar Etienne is the work of restaurateur Michael Bray and hospitality veteran Keith Larry, two longtime friends who met more than 20 years ago in New York and are now business partners for the first time.
Bray is the restaurateur behind the Lower East Side bar Bar Valentina, and at Bar Etienne he oversees the room's interiors and service experience, according to Time Out. He designed the space with Cody Parks, per the same report. As The Spirits Business describes it, Bray is the “creative force” behind the bar's interiors and service, and Bar Etienne marks the first collaboration between the two men, who have known each other for more than two decades.
Larry, for his part, spent more than a decade at the influential cocktail bar Employees Only and now leads Bar Etienne's drinks program. He has described the cocktails as approachable drinks made with serious technique, a philosophy that shows up in a menu built around clarification, infusion, centrifugation and carbonation, balancing easy-drinking flavors with more involved bar work, according to The Spirits Business.
Tiny Martinis and a French-Leaning Kitchen
The bar's signature novelty is Teeny 'Tinis, small-format versions of five Martinis priced at $14 each, including classic, dirty and mushroom variations, per Time Out. The fuller cocktail list leans more ambitious: the Martini Tomate combines vodka, clarified tomato, parmesan, oregano and vermouth, while the Banana Question pairs aged rum with clarified green banana, Bana Canne and lime, a build also detailed by The Spirits Business. There's also Coffee, Mate, a twist on the Espresso Martini built around baklava flavors with toasted pistachio and sesame, and Pastis n' Panisse, which pairs a one-ounce pour of pastis with a petite chickpea-flour fritter.
On the food side, the French Onion Grilled Cheese comes loaded with three cheeses, caramelized red onions and Dijon, while larger plates include steak frites au poivre, grilled branzino with brown butter and the Etienne Burger, topped with raclette and tomato jam. Bar Etienne has partnered with Claude Bakery to supply desserts, including an exclusive tarte Tatin and chocolate cake, according to The Spirits Business.
A Room Built From Salvaged Details
The design leans into old-world texture: vintage French furniture, a bright red banquette paired with a vintage French Vigneron table, and a mosaic floor with small hidden motifs — including a Martini glass, lips, a boot and hearts — worked into the pattern, per The Spirits Business. Bar Etienne preserved original mahogany millwork from the space and added a new zinc bar top made in Brooklyn, blending the old room's bones with new craftsmanship.
Accounts differ on exactly what occupied 44 Bedford Street immediately before Bar Etienne moved in. A Substack newsletter, Thirst Behavior, describes the address as the old Daddy-O's space, while DT NYC describes the same room as having housed Daddy-O's for years before becoming Bandits, then Bar Etienne. Timing of the opening is similarly muddled across outlets: Apres Global reports a soft opening on July 30, while Dining Out lists an August 31 opening in what it identifies as the former Bandits space.
Bar Etienne is open Monday through Friday from 4 pm to 2 am, and Saturday and Sunday from 2 pm to 2 am, according to Time Out. The opening fits a broader pattern along these West Village blocks this fall, where a blog tracking neighborhood openings, Phyllis Mehalakes, notes that recent new bars in the area were opened, reopened or backed by people already connected to the neighborhood rather than outside operators.
