Around midday on a recent Friday, Jillian Fracassi, a co-owner of Revelie Luncheonette, in New York’s SoHo, set the big table at the back with seven orders of French onion soup. A few minutes later, a group of young co-workers who could easily have been mistaken for college friends on spring break came in, sat down, ate the soup, and left, carrying bags of extra food on their way out.
“They come in once a week and do a huge take-out order,” says Karim Raoul, Fracassi’s husband and a co-owner of Revelie. “And while they’re waiting, they all eat onion soup.” A strange ritual, perhaps, but also a uniquely New York one. Where else will a walk-ins-only restaurant hold a table for a large party that isn’t even staying to eat?
