Le Petit Village Celebrates One Year at its Home in the West Village

Large golden balloons shimmered as Champagne coupes clinked beneath the low, honeyed glow of brass sconces at Le Petit Village last night, marking their one year anniversary. On the corner of 7th Avenue South and Perry Street, the bi-level gem welcomed a full house of regulars and fashion forward figures winding down from New York Fashion Week.

Le Petit Village Image Courtesy of Daniel Kwak

From the team behind Loulou Petit Bistro & Speakeasy and BarChef New York, Mino Habib and Mathias Van Leyden, Le Petit Village has, in a single year, cultivated a French pocket of nostalgia with a modern point of view. The restaurant’s ethos is rooted in the sun-drenched villages of the South of France where co-owner Mathias Van Leyden spent his childhood in the late ’70s. Think Provençal ease with a Manhattan cadence.

Mino Habib and Mathias Van Leyden. Photo Courtesy of Daniel Kwak

At the helm, Executive Chef Mehjabin Ahmed brings a résumé that reads like a Michelin constellation, noting time at Eleven Madison Park, Le Coucou, and Spice Market alongside time training under the likes of Daniel Humm, Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and Daniel Rose. Her menu is a love letter to regional French classics, filtered through a life lived across continents. The result? A menu that moves effortlessly from silken pappardelle, to a textbook Steak Au Poivre with frites, from tender spring chicken, to rustic ratatouille and a deeply aromatic bouillabaisse. It’s the sort of cooking that feels both transportive and grounding—Sunday supper in Provence by way of the West Village.

The result? A menu that moves effortlessly from silken pappardelle to a textbook Steak Au Poivre with frites, from tender spring chicken to rustic ratatouille and a deeply aromatic bouillabaisse. It’s the sort of cooking that feels both transportive and grounding—Sunday supper in Provence by way of Christopher Street.

Jeremy Le Blanche of Fantom Creative Hospitality (formerly of La Réserve St. Tropez and Thyme Bar) composed an array of cocktails with a theatrical wink. The Rose De Chloe arrives lush and layered with bourbon, Ratafia, salted caramel Campari, crowned with meringue and a dehydrated rose. Fleure Blanche is a spectacle in glass: bee pollen–infused vodka, St-Germain, cucumber pani puri syrup, baby’s breath, dry ice, edible glitter. Even the smoky Portrait Old Fashioned and the coquettish My First Love feel like objets d’art, equal parts flavor and flourish.

Le Petit Village Image Courtesy of Daniel Kwak

The 3,000-square-foot space, conceived by Delphine Mauroit of DMDesign, reads like a film set you never want to leave. Reclaimed wood and parquet floors meet exposed brick and a vintage fireplace; dark red leather banquettes curve beneath softly glowing sconces. Two bars anchor the space in social potential, while the mezzanine’s private dining lounge nods to New York’s after-hours past with nostalgic party portraits.

Outside, an artist-painted brick-red façade framed by climbing greenery evokes a Provençal storefront that feels as though it has stood there for decades. More than a restaurant, Le Petit Village has become a kind of clubhouse for the neighborhood where the air is perfumed with butter and herbs, where cocktails shimmer, and where warmth is not simply a design choice but a promise. One year in, it feels less like a newcomer and more like a classic.