LES’s Hotel Chantelle soft-opens

Hotel Chantelle, the tri-level Parisian restaurant and club at 92 Ludlow Street held its soft-opening over the weekend after two years of planning and expects to hold its grand opening within a few weeks’ time, according to the blog Bowery Boogie. Owner Benjamin Shih, who was also the mastermind behind Williamsburg’s Royal Oak, told the blog that he had originally intended to open the new Lower East Side nightspot in January 2009. Hotel Chantelle’s 390-seat, ground-floor restaurant, which will serve “French colonial” food, will be the first portion of Shih’s 7,500-square-foot space to open, while the roof deck and basement club — a hangout destination for insiders and “people in the neighborhood” — will follow in around six weeks, Shih said. The blog described the décor as “very swanky, with fancy upholstered booths, dim lighting and plenty of wood.” [Bowery Boogie]