“Stephen Verne Baldwin, the great-great-grandnephew of the French novelist, recently opened this outpost of French cooking in the Village and seems to be doing rather well with it. An American who previously worked in banking and publishing, Mr. Baldwin obviously knows a good deal about the food of the ‘old country’ and put together his manageably small menu with astuteness.”—Raymond A. Sokolov reviewing Le Jules Verne restaurant for the New York Times, 4/21/1972
Manhattan’s West Village was still very much a village in 1971 when Steve Baldwin, a warm, lively, graceful man opened his Le Jules Verne restaurant on 10th & 4th Streets at a time when people largely dined at home, occasionally cooking for friends. Indeed, the West Village was a residential and historic community then with a mere sprinkling of restaurants. Only three of them French. So Steve’s understated 10-table establishment—with its unobtrusive hot-air balloon plaque at the doorway—was a welcome addition to the neighborhood.
I moved to the West Village in 1971 from the Upper East Side and soon after was fortunate to bump into Steve Baldwin in front of the restaurant.
I got to know Steve well and spent many evenings at the restaurant hobnobbing with Steve’s extensive circle of friends & fans of his steak au poivre and crème brûlée with formidable burnt-brown-sugar topping.
It was a time before advertising and public relations sabotaged the humanness of the culture. There were no velvet ropes, no security details, no cell phones in the 1970s to spoil the mix.
“Tell your friends,” Steve would simply say to patrons. Among them, Malcolm Forbes, Grace Mirabella, Bill Blass, Arthur Loeb, Charles Schwab, Michael O’Donoghue and Anne Beatts, Paul Simon with Bette Midler, Joe Bologna and Renée Taylor, Steve Collins, Frank Converse & family, Jess Osuna. . . The restaurant had a decade-long run, closing in 1981.
Steve was the restaurant’s principal chef and was inspired by Franey, Rombauer, and Child recipes.
The sous chef, an aspiring fashion illustrator, would go on to a spectacular DJ career mixing music for Madonna, Whitney Houston, and Cyndi Lauper.
We lost touch after Le Jules Verne closed. Steve moved upstate—to Otego, New York where he wrote a weekly column on food for the local paper. Some of his recipes are now in book form: Roots of All Pleasures.
Steve’s privileged family roots were so deep—going back to Jules Verne on his mother Marthe Guillon-Verne’s side; related as well to the Knickerbocker family; his father NYS Senator/US Congressman Joe Baldwin III in the 1930s celebrated for having led the fight to clean up New York City politics; Joe’s father’s and grandfather’s wealth before that—that Steve felt especially responsible. He had a rare humility, sincerity, and generosity. And Steve was great fun. His laughter remains indelible in memory. . .
OSCILLATIONS 