Chez Napoleon: Classic French Fare Meets Goth In Hell's Kitchen

NEW YORK CITY —If there's anything for certain you could say about Chez Napoleon, the tiny little French bistro tucked just off 9th Ave. and 50th Street, it's that you should never judge what's inside if you're only seeing what's outside.

The restaurant is, according to co-owner "Sir" William Welles, the oldest continuing-service French eatery in the city. It's been serving up such classics as boeuf bourguignon, cassoulet and lapin "Marguerite" (rabbit stew) for decades now. But while the food and the setting may send your imagination traipsing down a Parisian side street, Welles' appearance is sure to snap you back to the here and now.

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Welles, who had "Sir" gifted to the front of his name by friends in his community, is Goth. Not "a Goth." Just Goth. And with his long mane of black hair set off by a single streak of white, pale-as-a-full-moon white contact lenses, midnight garb and inky dark fingernails, he's the kind of guy you'd expect to find reciting Poe on his lunch break.

In fact, Welles is a relatively chipper fellow who finds that the Goth worldview simply dovetails into his own. "In American culture, Western culture, it's all about celebrating birth," Welles likes to say. "Well, in Goth culture, we see death as just the natural bookend. We just like to appreciate the darkness as much as other people like the light."

Welles was born in the south of France in Nice and came to the United States when he was three with his parents and maternal grandparents in 1975. The family bought Chez Napoleon from its second owners after Welles mother, who waited tables there, heard the restaurant was for sale in 1982.

"The story is that the place is actually called Chez Napoleon because the original owner was short and ill-tempered," he laughs. "When we got it, I was 10, and the second owner added a lot of touches to the Napoleonic theme."

His grandmother created the menu, and his mother continued in the front of the house, welcoming guests and serving the family's recipes. Welles says that his being Goth isn't much of a big deal to him, and that most patrons find his appearance simply another conversation-starter as they dine.

"The neighborhood has changed a lot," he tells Patch. "When we got the restaurant, the second Madison Square Garden where they filmed "The Manchurian Candidate" was right across the street. And even theater people understood that you didn't cross 8th Ave. going west back then unless you wanted to get mugged. Now that's where World Wide Plaza is."

When he's not busy, you'll sometimes find Welles strolling outside his establishment, where, he says, how he reacts to people depends on how they regard him.

"Some people think it's cool and just yell, 'Rock on' at me," he says. "I did have a guy once who said, 'You know, Halloween is still a couple of months away!'

"I replied, 'So is April Fool's, but here you are."