The circa-1907 chandelier depicts a barmaid among clusters of grapes, harkening back to the space’s original use: a men-only barroom.
Harold Ross, the magazine’s founder, roamed here to ask his friends to write. Once, when he asked Dorothy Parker why she wasn’t in the office writing, she replied, “Someone was using the pencil.” Read more.
This Village relic was revamped by the restaurateur Keith McNally, of the Odeon, Balthazar, and Pastis. The vibe is now less seedy watering hole, more claustrophobe-celeb. Read more.
Robert De Niro’s place seems at first glance rather high-end faux. But the chef Andrew Carmellini’s blissfully homey Italian food serves as a reminder that cooking what you grow is a very good idea. Read more.
Didier Pawlicki, the chef and owner of one of the tiniest, least pretentious, more pleasurable French bistros in the city, is a sensitive and adaptable—not to mention Internet-savvy—soul. Read more.
“The name, though reminiscent of a Tarzan boast, is apt: Flex Mussels forgoes European and American tradition and puts the mussel on steroids.” Read more.
“And if you’re trying to describe a institution like Poets House,/…With a library, an auditorium, exhibition space, and reading rooms,/…Ordinary prose will not do.” –Ian Frazier Read more.
The place began life as an evening tenant at the Dumbo General Store, but the atmosphere in its new location on the Bowery is meant to evoke the sophistication of contemporary Mexico. Read more.
“The space is either the principal attraction (if its airporty weirdness appeals) or the primary problem (if the weirdness does not, and if the premium therefore grates).” Read more.
The team behind the Spotted Pig brings this new gastropub that projects a certain swagger. Chef April Bloomfield’s knack for unusual meats is evident, and the menu reads a bit like Dickens. Read more.
“So broadly Spanish (‘modern’) as to include accents of old colonies and rival powers,” with “a casual, airy bar area for tapas and a formal dining room, with Iberian maroons.” Read more.
