Bar Lesieur, serving ‘refined’ food without the stuffy feeling, opens in Rittenhouse

The Italian luncheonette with the hanging hams, tile floor, and cannoli counter just wasn’t working in the ground-floor space above Giuseppe & Sons, the Schulson Collective’s sprawling supper clublike restaurant at 1523 Sansom St. As the pandemic abated, the space was changed into a riff on a Jewish deli called Samuel’s. A year later, that, too, closed.

“We were trying to figure out what to do next,” said Kareem McCafferty, vice president of operations for the collective, which has 10 restaurants in Philadelphia and one in Atlantic City. “We wanted to do a cocktail bar and focus on the beverage portion of it, but as we laid out the groundwork for the floor plan and the design, it organically lent itself toward being French.”

Et voilà: It’s now Bar Lesieur, bustling and scene-y in its early days.

It extends the Schulson concept roster: Asian-inspired small plates (Sampan), steaks (Alpen Rose), an oyster bar (Pearl & Mary), Japanese (Double Knot, DK Sushi, Izakaya), Italian (Via Locusta, Giuseppe & Sons), American (Harp & Crown), pizza (Prunella), and the seasonal Independence Beer Garden.

McCafferty said founder Michael Schulson himself designed Lesieur with a tin ceiling, brick columns, wooden floors, vintage pieces and chicken-wire glass, table lamps, tufted banquettes, and zinc-topped bar with glass shelves on the back bar (and 10 pink bar stools).

There is also the low lighting and deep color palette reminiscent of Schulson’s restaurants — Alpen Rose comes to mind, as does Elbow Lane, the lounge beneath Harp & Crown next door. One key design fix is the floor plan. The stairs leading downstairs to Giuseppe & Sons are now enclosed, solving an odd setup that had patrons walking through the revolving door into another restaurant. Bar Lesieur is behind a new door, off to the right, and now the entrance serves as a foyer and waiting room for bar walk-ins.

Bread baker Nick Brannon and pastry chef Abby Dahan-Kramer, both of whom worked at Parc before their time at Samuel’s, segued naturally into the Frenchness of it all. Zach Bates, formerly of Twenty Manning and Lacroix, signed on as executive chef.

McCafferty said the chef team was packed off to France for research and development, not to French restaurants in Philadelphia or the States. “I think in order for us to become unique and for us to put on our own stamp, as opposed to feeling like it’s a reiteration of something that is already in the city, you have to go outside of the box,” he said. The chefs visited Michelin-rated restaurants, he said, “but they also went to the brasseries and the corner French places.” The result: Lesieur’s menu is French-inspired, but not devoted to any one region.

McCafferty cited the steak frites. ”The first thing you assume is that there’s going to be really thin-cut potatoes, maybe cooked in lard, with hanger steak or flat iron,” he said. “We have the opportunity to elevate traditional things and do something different.”

Hence, Lesieur’s steak frites is a bone-in New York strip steak in red-wine jus with hand-cut potatoes, priced at $63. (McCafferty said the check averages so far are $70 to $73 per person.)

“French cuisine is such an expansive cuisine, right?” McCafferty said. “It’s one of those things where you can make a million menus under the French concept. People may look at the menu that we have now and say, ‘Why didn’t they do coq au vin or why didn’t they do grenouille?” He said they planned to introduce a plat du jour, “and that way, we can accentuate the other French dishes that I think people may be looking for.”

The menu has 21 dishes spread among cold small plates, hot small plates, and main dishes, plus supplements such as caviar, truffles, and uni.

“We’re not looking to be like a traditional brasserie,” McCafferty said. “Refined food but without it feeling stuffy.”

Beverage director Michael McCaulley, an alumnus of Tria, oversees a mostly French wine list with 15 by the glass.

Bar Lesieur has added to a surge of activity on the 1500 block of Sansom Street. Across from Harp & Crown, Giuseppe & Sons, and Bar Lesieur, lines of patrons were waiting last Saturday night to get into the clubs Pulse and Ladder 15. Nearby, 1518 Bar & Grill, Oscar’s, and the new Chika Ramen Bar were busy, too.

Bar Lesieur was named after a late-19th-century bon vivant, Louis Lesieur, who lived at Seventh and Sansom Streets, now a corner of the Curtis Center. McCaulley’s collection of reserve, gran cru, and cellar-aged wines is called Louie’s List.

Bar Lesieur, 1523 Sansom St. Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Monday and Tuesday (bar till 11 p.m.); 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday (bar till midnight); 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday (bar till 2 a.m.)