Inside Le Café Louis Vuitton, the Maison’s first café in the United States – what to order, how to book, and where else in the world Louis Vuitton now sets a table
Most people walk into a Louis Vuitton store to buy something. On the fourth floor of the house’s New York store at 6 East 57th Street, they can also sit down. Le Café Louis Vuitton, the brand’s first café in the United States, serves monogram-shaped waffles with caviar in a room lined with books – a Louis Vuitton restaurant in all but name, in the heart of Midtown Manhattan.
It is also a sign of where luxury is heading. A handbag can be bought online; an afternoon at a café like this cannot. For Dallas travelers who already know the brand from NorthPark Center, the café is a reason to plan a New York trip around a reservation.
Le Café Louis Vuitton: The Louis Vuitton Restaurant in New York
The café opened in November 2024, inside the temporary five-story store Louis Vuitton built while its Fifth Avenue flagship, across 57th Street, is rebuilt. It is run with STARR Restaurants, the group of restaurateur Stephen Starr, behind New York’s Le Coucou and Pastis. Starr called it the company’s “first collaboration with Louis Vuitton.”
The kitchen is led by chef Christophe Bellanca, with pastry chef Mary George, both mentored by two of Louis Vuitton’s French culinary partners: chef Arnaud Donckele and pastry chef Maxime Frédéric. Louis Vuitton describes the result as its first “library café” in the U.S., a cultural meeting place where curated books share the room with what the house calls “luxury snacking.”
The Menu: Monogram Waffles, Caviar and the “Louis Paris” Croque
The opening menu set the tone. Savory waffles pressed into the shape of the Monogram flower arrived with caviar; a crab “Louis” salad and Le Burger “1898” followed. The MICHELIN Guide singled out a scallop soufflé with caviar and champagne beurre blanc, and Le Croque “Louis Paris,” layered with white ham, Comté and black truffle. Desserts have included a Bartlett pear tart and hazelnut praline.
Bellanca has explained the balance he is after in plain terms:
“It’s about elegant and refined dishes that are also familiar and accessible.”
The tableware completes the picture. Louis Vuitton designed the café itself, down to the monogrammed dinnerware and the tags that hang from the ceiling – details Starr described as “subtle touches.”
Planning a Visit to Le Café Louis Vuitton
- Address: 6 East 57th Street, fourth floor, New York, NY 10022.
- Hours: Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
- Reservations: Booked through Resy; plan ahead, as the café was reportedly booked solid for weeks after it opened.
- Chocolate: Le Chocolat Maxime Frédéric at Louis Vuitton, the brand’s first chocolate shop in the U.S., shares the fourth floor.
- Phone: 212.581.2300.
A Store Built Around the Trunk
The café is only one stop in the building. The temporary store, designed with Shohei Shigematsu of the architecture firm OMA, rises around an atrium where towers of Louis Vuitton trunks climb more than 50 feet, a nod to the Manhattan skyline. Across the street, the flagship under renovation is wrapped in a 240-foot façade shaped like six stacked hard-sided trunks, complete with oversized handles and rivets etched with the brand’s name.
The arrangement is temporary by design. The 57th Street store is expected to operate for about three years, until the renovated flagship reopens. What becomes of Le Café Louis Vuitton once the flagship reopens is one of the open questions of the project.
Louis Vuitton Cafés and Restaurants Around the World
New York joined a map that began in Japan. In 2020, Louis Vuitton opened its first café and restaurant, Le Café V and SUGALABO V, at its Osaka Midosuji store, with chef Yosuke Suga; a second Le Café V followed in Tokyo’s Ginza in 2021. Since then, the house has treated food as part of the store itself:
- Paris: Le Café Maxime Frédéric at Louis Vuitton, at LV Dream, 2 bis rue du Pont-Neuf, with savory dishes, pastries and a chocolaterie.
- Milan: Da Vittorio Café Louis Vuitton and the restaurant DaV by Da Vittorio Louis Vuitton, at Via Montenapoleone 2, created with the three-Michelin-star Da Vittorio.
- Bangkok: LV The Place Bangkok at Gaysorn Amarin, home to Le Café Louis Vuitton and Gaggan at Louis Vuitton, led by chef Gaggan Anand.
- Seoul: LV The Place Seoul at Shinsegae The Reserve, pairing Le Café Louis Vuitton with JP, a restaurant led by two-Michelin-star chef Junghyun Park.
- Hong Kong: LV The Place Hong Kong, set to open on December 12 at K11 MUSEA, with a Le Café Louis Vuitton whose menu is being developed by Maxime Frédéric.
One project will not join the list. Louis Vuitton had long been expected to open a hotel on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, but in January 2026 LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault put it plainly: “Vuitton ne fera pas d’hôtel” – Vuitton will not build a hotel. The building is instead expected to become a brand destination with shopping, exhibitions and dining.
Is There a Louis Vuitton Café in Dallas?
Not yet. None of the brand’s announcements so far include a café in North Texas, and for now the closest Le Café Louis Vuitton to Dallas is the one on 57th Street. The brand’s Dallas presence is growing, though. Its boutique at NorthPark Center was renovated and expanded in 2020, and a new Louis Vuitton is coming to 21 Highland Park Village, in the space Hermès will leave for a larger boutique in early 2027. Read more in our guide to the new stores at Highland Park Village.
Until a table comes to Texas, the ritual belongs to New York: a monogram waffle on the fourth floor, a box of chocolates from the shop next door, and a city skyline echoed in towers of trunks.
Discover more of the tables worth traveling for in our Fine Dining section.
