On a sunny spring afternoon, Christophe Caron—owner of Delice & Sarrasin, a beloved vegan French restaurant in New York City’s West Village—keeps a watchful eye on the dining room as he talks. After laying off nearly a third of his staff, he’s had to step back into daily operations himself.
The quaint but sophisticated plant-based spot has amassed a number of loyal customers since its establishment 13 years ago. Known for its vegan iterations of classic French dishes such as escargot and boeuf bourguignon, the restaurant has garnered plenty of interest for its unique offerings. But over the past couple of years, business has been rough.
While the restaurant once received more than 70 reservations per day, it is now down to around 10.
“It’s terrible,” Caron told Retail Brew. “I mean, if I show you the reservations today, we have nine. It’s two tables in total.”
Caron said that although the COVID-19 pandemic was hard on most local food businesses in the city, the real problems for Delice & Sarrasin arose sometime after 2023.
“We felt something was wrong right after May [or] June, when it’s supposed to be a good month, and then 2024 was not going well,” he said. “Then 2025 we were just here, thinking, ‘Where is everybody?’”In 2023, the restaurant also closed for a brief period and relocated to its current address.
Calling the gradual fall in foot traffic a “slow death sentence,” Caron blamed a cocktail of problems including inflation and the rise of remote work after the pandemic.
“First…people are spending less, second there’s just less people,” he said. “I leave Midtown, and every time I come here…I used to see the streets full, and now they’re empty.”
He added that New York City’s congestion pricing, which charges drivers up to $9 to enter Manhattan’s central business district and went into effect this January, has additionally impacted many neighboring businesses.
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For now, Caron has tried to combat this significant drop in reservations and customer volume through staff reductions and increasing the prices of certain items on the menu by $0.50–$1, but things remain challenging.
Although most of the ingredients used in the dishes at the restaurant are locally sourced, they cost a lot more than they used to. Moreover, prices of things like electricity and rent have added on.
“Two and a half to three years ago, I used about $900 a month [for electricity],” he said. “Now I pay $4,000.”
He added that “there’s big insurance issues for restaurants…restaurants aren’t the only ones affected because of the crime rates, just because the insurance [companies] don’t want to pay anymore every time somebody gets robbed or something. So the price that I used to pay annually, I pay monthly now.”
While higher rent, ingredient costs, and insurance premiums are factors that likely impact most restaurants in the area, Caron, who believes in the mission of his family-run independent restaurant, the problem likely comes from not getting enough “exposure.”
The restauranteur, who admittedly is not very well versed with social media marketing, said he is now looking into TikTok to bring back customers. “Somebody told me that TikTok…has definitely had a huge impact and can become viral really quick,” he said “So I’m going to do this.”
Ultimately despite the challenges, Caron remains determined to keep Delice & Sarrasin afloat—at least for now. ‘We have [had] the same staff for about 12 years,” he said. “It's hard to let them go. I'm telling you, we have been open, even just for them.”