39°06′10.33″N84°30′40.31″W / 39.1028694°N 84.5111972°W /39.1028694; -84.5111972
The Maisonette (1949-2005) wasNorth America's most-highly-rated restaurant before it closed.[1][2]
The Maisonette was opened by Nathan L. Comisar in 1949 in the basement space beneath La Normandie, also owned by Comisar, in theFountain Square Building in Cincinnati.[1][3] Comisar named the restaurant after a club by the same name in theSt. Regis Hotel in New York City.[4]
In 1964 it was awarded its firstMobil 5-star award.[3] In 1966 both restaurants were moved to East Sixth St, with The Maisonette at street level and La Normandie in the basement.[1]
The Maisonette was a fine-dining restaurant, but in the mid-1990s it relaxed its dress code.[5]
ServingFrench cuisine and owned by theComisar family and located since 1966[3] at 114 E. 6th Street inCincinnati, Ohio, the Maisonette received the five-star award (the highest designation given byMobil Travel Guide) forty-one years in a row, the longest streak for any North American restaurant.[11][12]
Opinions vary on the cause of Maisonette's decline. There were fewer customers who wanted to dress for dinner, fewer corporations willing to cover expensive business lunches, operating costs increased, and the City of Cincinnati refused to offer it a tax break. The Maisonette had plans to move to Cincinnati'sKenwood suburb, where it hoped to attract a younger crowd; however, theHamilton County Planning Commission rejected zoning for the proposed Sycamore Square project, a $60 million development that was to include a relocated Maisonette as the anchor tenant.[8]
The Frost Brown Todd law firm purchased the rights to the name The Maisonette for an unnamed client for $35,000 after the restaurant closed in 2005.[3] In 2013, the Phoenix Restaurant Group acquired the trademark.
In 2013 David Falk's restaurant Boca moved into the space formerly occupied by The Maisonette and Sotto into the space formerly occupied by La Normandie.[4]
Thelobster bisque,chateaubriand jardiniere,brill en croute, Dover sole, raspberry chicken and cafe brulot were noted dishes.[1][8][5][4]