admin
New Yorkers and lovers of real, earned excellence should take heart: Forbes has just recognized Restaurant Le B., led by Chef Angie Mar, on its 2025 All-Star Eateries list — proof that quality and hard work still get noticed even in a city awash with hype and politics. This sort of recognition isn’t handed out to virtue-signaling ventures; it goes to places that deliver craft, consistency, and a dining experience people remember.
Angie Mar’s Le B. sits in Greenwich Village, right next to the original Beatrice Inn that made her name, and it intentionally channels that downtown spirit while staking its own claim on the map of great American restaurants. This is small-business stewardship at its finest — a restaurateur honoring history, investing in a neighborhood, and refusing to outsource her standards to a culture of mediocrity.
The menu is a deliberate fusion of classic French technique with Mar’s Chinese roots and fine touches of Japanese influence, producing dishes designed to be memorable rather than merely trendy. From tableside theatrics to her signature Dungeness Crab Wellington, Le B. leans into craftsmanship and showmanship the cultural elites used to respect before everything became about signaling.
Then there’s the thing food snobs and hardworking diners alike can agree on: Le Burger. This isn’t your gas-station slap‑together — it’s a 90 percent dry-aged ribeye blend, treated like a steak and served with proper restraint and technique, which explains why people line up and why the price reflects true quality. The mechanics and the discipline behind it — from long dry-aging to letting the meat rest — are the opposite of cheap, performative dining; they’re the mark of mastery.
The burger’s mystique is real: Vogue has called it the “Birkin bag of burgers,” and MasterClass even featured Angie Mar in its G.O.A.T. series — a recognition of skill that doesn’t come from clout-chasing but from actually knowing your craft. That kind of acclaim should make every patriotic American proud: here is an entrepreneur creating something exceptional and earning worldwide attention without begging for permission.
Let’s be blunt: expensive doesn’t have to mean elitist in the pejorative sense — it can mean rare, well-made, and worth the cost for those who value quality. In an age where much of public life rewards loudness over substance, restaurants like Le B. are a reminder that excellence still matters and that people will pay for it when it’s delivered honestly. Americans who work hard and seek real value should celebrate that, and should demand more of the cultural institutions that shape our tastes.
