Renowned chef to oversee restaurants at new French department store

Paris, or at least a part of it, is coming to the Financial District in early 2025, in the form of 150-year-old grand magasin Printemps. The luxury department store will be home to five restaurants run by the Saga Hospitality Group as operating partners with Printemps and Gregory Gourdet, a James Beard winner, who will stand at the helm.

Saga Hospitality already has a deep footprint in lower Manhattan’s dining scene, with upscale restaurants like Crown Shy and the eponymous Saga among the top draws in its portfolio. A spokesperson said that the dining options at Printemps will range from “fine dining to a casual café” that will be exclusive to the Printemps store.

Those options will be in the hands of Gregory Gourdet, the born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens, Haitian-American chef who won the 2023 James Beard Award for “Best New Restaurant,” an accolade earned by the food at Kann in Portland, which specializes in Haitian wood-fired cooking and opened just one year before. Gourdet previously won a James Beard Award for his 2021 cookbook, Everyone’s Table, co-authored with food writer, J.J. Goode.

“I’ve always imagined coming back to my hometown of New York City, and this was one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities – it just felt right,” Gourdet told Our Town. “ My French background and love of fashion and culture really drew me to the project.”

The Printemps team has been extremely intentional in imagining something new for one of the world’s most dynamic cities, from the food and beverage concepts to the overall environment and experience. NYC has it all, so it was an exciting challenge to create something unique.

Printemps, which was bought by Qatari investors in 2013, announced its first US expansion in September 2022, which was later revised to the summer of 2024. Planting its flag in lower Manhattan is a sign of confidence after years of difficult trading, as was a prediction from Printemps Groupe chief executive officer Jean-Marc Bellaiche in March 2022 that he expected sales to recover to pre-pandemic levels by the New York store’s rescheduled opening in 2025.

The store, located at 1 Wall Street, the historic art deco skyscraper built in 1931 between New Street and Broadway, will encompass more than 54,000 square feet of space spread across two levels. Designed by Parisian interior designer Laura Gonzalez, the location was chosen, in part, because of “high visibility and growth potential,” according to a statement released by Bellaiche at the time.

“Printemps has designed an ecosystem that speaks to and weaves together all aspects of lifestyle, redefining retail, weaving together a future-proof strategy that transcends the ordinary shopping experience” said Gourdet.