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George McNally is not trying to be his father. He is, however, opening a restaurant in the same city where his father built one of the most recognizable names in New York dining. Faux, a French restaurant with a club in the basement, is slated to open this summer in Tribeca, across the street from The Roxy Hotel. George, 22, is the son of Keith McNally, the restaurateur behind some of New York’s most beloved hotspots, including Balthazar, Pastis, and Minetta Tavern.
“Tribeca could become great. It used to be cool, but now it’s become more residential, a bit stagnant,” George told Cultured in a recent interview about the location choice. “It just doesn’t feel like there’s enough happening to make people want to stay out here.”
The fourth of five children, he is the son of Keith’s second marriage; his older half-siblings are from Keith’s first marriage to longtime business partner Lynn Wagenknecht. George grew up between New York and London, moving to Notting Hill at eight and later attending Brighton College for three years before being expelled. Faux is George’s first venture on his own, though he spent years working across the McNally group, including a stint helping open a Pastis outpost in Washington, D.C.
“When you’re doing something like this for the first time—I don’t know if it ever really goes away—but you do feel a bit like a fraud,” George told Cultured about the inspiration behind Faux’s name. “At the end of the day, what I’ve grown up around is English people making French restaurants in America, and here I am doing the same. It feels natural in one sense, but I still have that feeling. I’m also sure people are going to give me a hard time through this opening, so I thought I might as well beat them to the punch and make fun of it myself.”
The menu at Faux will draw not from Paris but from Marseilles, where head chef Kristina Ramos, who previously worked at Minetta Tavern in Washington, once cooked. The menu will feature classics like steak frites, mussels, and grilled fish. Designed by Ian McPheely, who worked on both Pastis and Balthazar, the restaurant will occupy two floors. The upstairs dining room will have a bar in the back open to walk-ins. Downstairs, there will be a long bar lining a lower-ceilinged room, transforming into a club when seats are pushed aside for dancing after dinner.
George has strong opinions about what Faux will not be. Menus will be printed rather than accessed by QR code, and checks will be taken to the back rather than processed on tablet card readers. The cocktail list will aim for simplicity. “Everything looks like an allergen list,” he told Air Mail of the current bar scene. “People get so caught up in thinking they’re a fucking genius. I’m just a bartender.”
Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.