La Cave
Upper King Street on a Saturday night is not for the faint of heart. Bachelorette sashes tangle with bar crawls, shot specials blare from open doorways, and the collective din could rattle the windows at St. Michael’s. So it takes a particular kind of nerve to open a candlelit Provençal lounge amid the clamor and ask people to slow down.
La Cave, the intimate sibling to Félix Cocktails et Cuisine, opened in fall 2024. But the real pivot came with the arrival of Alex Eaton, hired last summer by owner Félix Landrum into a newly created culinary director role overseeing both kitchens. Eaton sharpened her instincts under Mike Lata at The Ordinary, then ran Estadio’s kitchen with an intensely seasonal hand. At La Cave, she’s expanded beyond petites plats with offerings substantial enough to anchor a full romantic evening or a bespoke gathering at the large table tucked into the corner. Her menu, rooted in French provincial cooking, deserves more reverence than the boisterous cocktail lounge atmosphere sometimes allows…