Page 42 - 2025 Westchester Relocation & Moving Guide

Bistro de Ville Scarsdale / bistrodeville.com
ilky oven-roasted duck breast with a conf t leg and thigh is just one of the classic French entrées to sample at Scarsdale’s
upscale-casual eatery, Bistro de Ville. In what may seem like an
unexpected offering from the farm- to-fork force at Purdy’s Farmer & the Fish, Bistro de Ville presents a full- circle moment for the restaurateurs .
“We are classically French-trained chefs,” says co-owner Michael Kaphan of himself and his chef de cuisine, Kurt Hermanson, fresh from the kitchen
of Manhattan’s Bar Boulud. Co-owner Kevin O’Neill, a Culinary Institute of America grad who’s spent seven years as chef de cuisine at Purdy’s, lists several notable New York City French restaurants on his resume. “This is a return to our roots,” Kaphan says.
With the intention to establish “a warm, cozy, neighborhood bistro with a good vibe,” Kaphan and company offer a tight but well-rounded menu of seasonally driven, classic French fare in a rustically ref ned, laidback setting.
Café-size tables and a row of lush banquettes create an ambience that lends itself to lingering over coupes
of Champagne and starters of house- prepared pâté and duck mousse, Caesar salad with hunks of near- hardboiled egg, or roasted cauliflower atop baba ghanoush and harissa. Oysters and Maine lobster cocktail present a lighter way to ease into entrées. Steak frites, born from a juicy New York strip, is served with hand- cut shoestring potatoes, and moules frites is just as satisfying with plump, soft and fleshy mussels. Produce is plucked from the f elds at Purdy’s.
Clever cocktails pair well with the cuisine; and the wine list is almost exclusively French.
A meal-ending must is the chocolate mousse. What could be more welcoming and Old-World French?
Medi Bistro White Plains / medi-bistro.com
edi Bistro in White Plains is a destination restaurant boasting mouthwatering Persian
cocktails and plates.
The youngest of f ve growing up in
Tehran, “I was the one on top of the chair, watching my mother prepare the rice, the stews,” says veteran restaurateur Par Shakiban. “In our culture, the meal is an event. We are very serious when it comes to food.”
Shakiban took his upbringing with him when he left home for NYC in 1959 at the age of 15. He supported himself as a busboy and waiter, and less then a decade after setting foot in America, Shakiban opened Par’s Steak & Lobster in Armonk. A string of successful restaurants in Westchester and Connecticut followed, and his Austrian-Swiss bakery, Patisserie Salzburg (Rye, Stamford, and New
CMazi
Red Hook / maziredhook.com
an we get an opa? If you love Greek food, you’ll love Mazi. Opa translates roughly to “hooray!”—
and that’s the feeling you get when scooping warm pita into a trio of dips including garlicky hummus, cool tzatziki, and salty taramasalata with cured roe and lemon juice.
Red Hook resident Taso Gionnoulis has owned Enzo’s Ristorante & Pizza in Kingston for over 20 years but has long dreamed of sharing his Greek culture with his hometown. Everything about
the new spot celebrates family— including the name Mazi, which means “together” in Greek. The menu includes meze, salads, soups, pita sandwiches, entrées, sides, and sweets. It combines family favorites from his Greek-born mother, grilled dishes that honor the memory of
his father, and what Gionnoulis calls “bar food with a Greek twist.” Classic moussaka and his grandmother’s lemon potatoes, rice, and orzo are the foods that “bring out my soul,” says Gionnoulis. The grilled lamb chops recall childhood weekends when Gionnoulis and his father would grill together.
Gionnoulis sources as many ingredients from Greece as possible, such as grape leaves, olive oil, feta, and oregano. The pita and baklava are from Astoria, Queens, but the cheesecake is made in-house.
The bar is stocked with Greek spirits including ouzo and Metaxa. Mazi also serves wines from his father’s home village, beer from Santorini, and Greek sodas.
Before opening Mazi, Gionnoulis sat down with his two daughters and discussed the pros and cons of opening a second restaurant. “You always tell us to live our dreams,” they told him, “Now it’s time for you to live yours.”
40 LIVING IN WESTCHESTER AND THE HUDSON VALLEY | RELOCATION & MOVING GUIDE
Canaan), still thrives.
In April 2023, Shakiban opened
Medi Bistro with the intention of creating a “destination” restaurant. Every recipe, from the pickles (delicately marinated in 19 herbs and spices) to the Persian ice cream and tea was crafted by Shakiban.
Lightly blackened pita and dips
of hummus, smoky eggplant, and labne pair with authentic salads, slow-cooked stews, and traditional kebabs of chicken, lamb, seafood, and beef koobideh, a blend of three meats and a mouth feel as light as air. Most everything enjoys the kiss of pure, Persian saffron, particularly the rice, and all of it is to be shared. A dozen wines and Persian cocktails complement a meal that serves as an immersion in Persian culture. “It was trial and error, one dish at a time— until it tasted like home.”
PHOTOS (LEFT OT RIGHT) COURTESY OF BISTRO DE VILLE; BY MICHELLE GILLAN LARKIN; COURTESY OF MAZI
▼
▼
▼