Maison Premiere: A legendary restaurant rises from the ashes

In August 2020, there was panic among the food enthusiasts of New York. Maison Premiere, the oyster and wine bar in Brooklyn’s salubrious Williamsburg, had been open for nearly a decade but appeared to have shuttered for good. Eater New York reported the bar’s site was redirecting to an error page, its phone lines had been disconnected, and its popular Instagram account had disappeared. Once a place to impress people on first dates, it now seemed it was destined to become another sad story of a neighbourhood haunt reduced to debt and dust during the pandemic. Eulogies were written; social media was awash with sadness. Since May of that year, loyal customers had been donating to a GoFundMe account that promised money received would go straight to the workers aiming to keep the place open. Now it seemed it had all been in vain.

And then, in September, a phoenix rose from the ashes. Maison Premiere’s Instagram account suddenly came back online with a picture of a cocktail and the note: “Oysters, champagne and sherry cobblers. May it always be.” Comments underneath were confused and cautiously joyous: “Coming back from the brink? Is it possible…” asked one, while others simply added: “Please tell me you guys are back,” “Reopening??” and, “YEEESSSS!!!!” One ex-New Yorker jumped in to say: “You might be the only thing I really reminisce about NYC.”

To understand the love for Maison Premiere, you have to understand Williamsburg. It’s a neighbourhood that now sports a Whole Foods and a Lululemon but, when the bar first opened, was an edgy choice for creatives eschewing Manhattan. What began as a spill-out area for people who could no longer afford the Lower East Side quickly became the place to be. And even now, the bars and restaurants of Williamsburg are the most reliably lively on weekend (and weekday) nights, the streets the fullest. Once, no tourist would have bothered adding Brooklyn to their itinerary when visiting the Big Apple. Now, people (even my own mother) come to stay in the upmarket Williamsburg Hotel on the waterfront and barely spend a day off the island.

New Yorkers have a serious penchant for oyster bars, and Maison Premiere does oysters well. Their menu features an “oyster happy hour” and divides seafood up into east coast and west coast offerings, along with suggested pairings of wine and champagne. The waitstaff dress in suits and ties with waistcoats and braces, and pour absinthe cocktails at the horseshoe bar. A portrait sits above the restored fireplace and a wooden trellis adorns the small back yard, yet the atmosphere is unpretentious, and the bar itself sits on a long and busy Williamsburg street known as much for its cheap and cheerful taco trucks as it is for its sit-down meals.

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European visitors to Maison Premiere – or First House, as it periodically reverts to (it doesn’t really matter what it’s currently called, since it has no name printed on its shopfront) – might be confused by the saloon-style doors, the shrimp gumbo, and the black-and-white photographs of US military men. Americans, however, know exactly what this decor and food combined with the French affectations mean: this bar and seafood bolthole is an homage to New Orleans, not France. Accept it as an example of old-style USA and you can’t go wrong. Go in expecting authentic French cuisine, and the steamed mussels with nduja and gumbo sofrito or the buttery Maine lobster roll might leave you feeling confused.