Le Colonial Plans Manhattan Return With 10K-SF Restaurant at 50 West 57th Street

A well-known, but controversial, French-Vietnamese restaurant is making a comeback in Midtown in the summer of 2027.

Le Colonial has signed a 15-year lease for 9,600 square feet at the base of 50 West 57th Street, a 16-story office and retail building owned by Vornado Realty Trust and LeFrak, according to the landlords. News of Le Colonial’s return comes after the restaurant closed its San Francisco and New York City locations over the past few years following accusations that the restaurateurs were romanticizing the French colonial period in Southeast Asia.

Le Colonial’s original New York City location at 149 East 57th Street closed in 2019, while the San Francisco eatery shuttered in 2024. The restaurant has several more U.S. locations in cities such as Chicago, Atlanta and Denver.

Vornado declined to provide the asking rent in the new deal, but the median asking rent for the adjacent retail corridor of Fifth Avenue from East 49th to East 59th streets was $2,550 per square foot in the second half of 2025, according to a report from the Real Estate Board of New York.

The new eatery will seat 215 people indoors and outdoors, and Le Colonial will have office space on the seventh floor of the building, the landlords said. Vornado did not disclose the size of the office component.

“Le Colonial first opened on 57th Street more than three decades ago, so this neighborhood has always felt like home to us,” Rick Wahlstedt, Le Colonial’s founder, said in a statement. “Having lived in New York for over 40 years, it feels incredibly meaningful for me to return here with my partner Joe King and bring Le Colonial back to its roots in a new format that reflects how the brand has evolved over the years.”

Founded in 1993, Le Colonial’s return will include restaurant proprietor Frederick Lesort as a partner.

Gary Trock negotiated on behalf of the tenant in the transaction while Jason Morrison represented Vornado in-house.

“The Vietnamese-French cuisine [concept] is something that has done very well across the country and is something really different that you don’t find in New York,” Trock told Commercial Observer.

“Surrounded by five-star hotels, trophy office towers and luxury retailers, Le Colonial’s return reaffirms this 57th Street corridor as one of Manhattan’s premier dining destinations,” Glen Weiss, Vornado’s co-head of real estate, said in a statement.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.