At first glance, Grille de Paris looks like a high-class European restaurant: pale yellow runners line bright blue tablecloths, fiber-optic lighting overhead twinkles like stars in the sky, and French music plays softly in the background.
But Grille de Paris is not in France. It is the only kosher French restaurant in Brooklyn, drawing people from all over New York City. Some seek the delicious food and the relaxed yet refined atmosphere the restaurant offers. Others frequent it because the owner’s unique concept has unified the local religious community.
“Now you don’t have to schlep to Manhattan to get great kosher food,” owner Yuliya Mazur, 41, said. “And once people discover us, they come back again and again.”
Before she moved to the United States ten years ago and bought the restaurant, which is located in the Kings Highway neighborhood, Mazur struggled to find food she could eat in her native country of Russia.
“It’s not practical to eat kosher there, or at least it wasn’t in Moscow,” Mazur said. “Not many people could afford to go out, and until recently, the restaurants weren’t very good.”
Mazur has always loved to cook, and she said her dinner guests often told her she should open her own restaurant.
“In Russia, it was only a dream,” she said. “I worked hard, and I had two little girls to feed. When I came to New York, that’s when I thought I might actually be able to do this. My friend Philip Gorbulsky, who is now my co-owner at Grille de Paris, said, ‘Yuliya, you work so hard. Why are you still working for someone else?’”
Mazur always had a flair for business, ascending from jobs in the travel sector to positions in performance management in prominent Russian corporations. When she bought Grille de Paris in 2005, a then typical French restaurant at 904 Kings Highway in Brooklyn, she completely overhauled it.
“I wanted to be able to eat at my own restaurant, so I knew it had to be kosher,” Mazur said, laughing. “The French/kosher mix just happened. It’s interesting, because to Russia, everything French has something rosy about it. Historically, French was the language of the Russian aristocracy, every respectable person of society in Russia had to teach their children French at some point. French food has always been an extremely attractive part of all that.”
The menu at Grille de Paris reflects Mazur’s unique vision. The food is not only strictly kosher -it is expressly tailored, varied and original, since customers range from Brooklyn-born Jews to native Israelis to out-of-state New York University students, who have never eaten a kosher meal before. Typical French dishes such as Salade D’Aubergine and Eggplant Capree are paired with Filet Wellington, sweet bread, and baby lamb chops. Health-conscious options are available upon request, and Mazur is developing a strictly vegetarian menu for her guests who do not eat fish. All of the food is excellently prepared and expertly-presented.
There is an artist behind the success - Chef Sunny. He has been working at Grille de Paris since it opened, and his skills are appreciated by customers and owners alike. Trained in culinary schools in both Haifa, Israel and Paris, France, he understands the varied taste of their clientele.
“Sunny is a great chef,” Mazur said. “In this business, there are a lot of people who can cook, but there aren’t many who care as much about the work the way he does. When we have customers from Israel, he goes out and speaks to them personally. He’s fluent in Hebrew and understands how they want their food prepared.”
As someone who keeps kosher himself, Chef Sunny appreciated Mazur’s choice to serve strictly kosher food, he said.
“We discuss everything: all the details of the business,” Chef Sunny said. “She’s a smart woman, very intelligent and nice. We are both willing to help and to cooperate.”
Grille de Paris has been successful under Mazur’s management. The innovative idea and deliberate execution earned her the title “Best Business Woman of the Year” in 2006 and a front cover photo in the New York-based publication, Russian Press.
“I’m used to working hard,” Mazur said. “I’m at the restaurant 90 percent of the time and the other 10 percent I’m somewhere else working on it. When I go to sleep, I’m still dreaming about it. It’s non-stop. Right now, we’re doing well, but it’s a lot of work.”
Grille de Paris provides a particular service for the local Jewish community in conjunction with Mazur’s synagogue. Rabbi Binsky, who supervises traditional Jewish events at the restaurant, regards the restaurant as an exception even within the kosher-keeping community, because its cuisine keeps to the highest standards, known as glat kosher.
“Grille de Paris is not just wonderful food,” Rabbi Binsky said. “It’s a community center. What is important is not only food, but also spirit. People come here for both.”
The restaurant hosts public seminars and religious events as well as private receptions, the most important of which is the Jewish tradition sheva brachot, according to Mazur. A seven-day period following Jewish weddings, the sheva brachot tradition prevents newlyweds from attending to worldly matters during their transition into married life, prescribing that family and friends fete and feed them instead. Now a staple of the Jewish community, Grille de Paris periodically closes its doors to the public to provide this intimate service for couples and the large parties that accompany them.
“It represents a very important event in many people’s lives,” Mazur said. “The work here can be hectic, but it also gives you an opportunity to share in people’s great emotions and lasting memories – which is completely different from some American restaurants, where you just pick your food, eat it and go.”
In only two years, Grille de Paris has become an integral part of the local community. It has served as a gallery, displaying the work of local artists. There have been two Jewish weddings on site.
The restaurant has taken part in Brooklyn’s “History of Immigration Week,” a municipal initiative that offers a rich collection of free or low-cost programs that build cross-cultural understanding between diverse New Yorkers. The event made Mazur feel even more connected to the community in an organized way, she said.
“It’s an amazing thing to see people enjoy themselves here and escape their day to day lives,” she said. “They sometimes come in looking stressed or tired. But after a long meal in good company, their faces change. It’s a great feeling to be a part of that.”