Le Coucou restaurant in Soho, Manhattan, sits inside the boutique hotel 11 Howard. It is the place that Chicago-born and internationally acclaimed chef Daniel Rose (of Spring and La Bourse et La Vie in Paris) has opened with restaurateur Stephen Starr to exhibit his personal vision of classic French cuisine in the most utterly charming backdrop set against the grandeur and lightness of spectacular triple-hung glass windows. This bistrot was designed by Roman and Williams to contrast the stark Danish minimalist aesthetic of the 11 Howard, achieved through stripping away all of the years of renovations to expose the texture of existing raw brick walls and setting it off against deep olive velvet seating and white linen tablecloths, with pewtered-steel chandeliers dropping from an existing exposed concrete ceiling and casting a warm glow from hand-blown glass shades …
