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“The Bar Room at The Modern”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	Midtown	Moderate	Good

I tend not to dine out in Midtown. It’s just not my ‘hood. When I was a lawyer, sure, I hit all the Midtown greats with associates and partners and assorted clients who were footing the bill. But now, in my days as a freelancer living below 23rd Street, I don’t venture up to the city’s midsection all that much. But when The Modern, Danny Meyer’s restaurant in the newly renovated MOMA, opened it’s café and bar room last week, I felt it was time to leave my comfort zone and stray into the land of suits and expense accounts. (I am going to head into the belly of the beast again this week when I check out Marcus Samuelsson’s café at Aquavit, so stay tuned.)

Designed by Bentel & Bentel (they’ve done Gramercy Tavern as well), The Bar Room feels like you’d expect MOMA’s flagship eatery to feel—clean, lean, and cool, with low ceilings, mirrored panels, Danish furniture and tableware, and a 46-foot marble bar lit from below and backed by a magnificent glass wine wall holding 2210 bottles. On the far wall, which stretches the horizontal length of the Bar Room, hangs “Clearing,” a sunny photograph of a dewy, verdant forest by German artist Thomas Demand that is so realistic, it almost fills the room with the soft, humid air of a rainforest.

At midday, The Bar Room buzzes with the city’s savvy business elite—banker types in Burberry and Hermes, creative directors in Prada and Paul Smith, publishing types in assorted levels of fabulousness, handsome women clad in boucle Chanel, and an impressive cast of characters seated at the long bar, with their noses buried in the FT, and forks deep into dishes of artic char tartare with daikon and trout caviar ($13), smoked eel rillettes with horseradish sauce ($11), and charred octopus with potato salad ($10).

The chef, Gabriel Kreuther, who earned three stars for his innovative French fare at Atelier, will unveil the formal dining room, a similarly minimalist, but far more elegant space overlooking the Abby Aldrich Sculpture Garden in February, but in the meantime, there is plenty to eat in The Bar Room. Indeed, the café menu is quite large with 25 Alsatian-inspired dishes (all in large appetizer/small entree size) gently priced from $8-$17. This is a menu that causes major decision-making issues—it is filled with temptation. So I would either go with a lot of friends and share, or plan to ... [more, click below]

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Posted: January 23, 2005

Other restaurants in Midtown :
+ Lever House   + Aquavit   + RM   + Joseph's (formerly Citarella The Restaurant)   + Town   + Artisanal   + The Oyster Bar   + Geisha   + David Burke and Donatella Restaurant   + Riingo   + Amma   + Cafe Sabarsky   + The Stone Rose Lounge   + BLT Steak   + V, The Steakhouse-- Closed   + Bar Masa   + Cafe Gray   + The Bar Room at The Modern   + The Cafe at Aquavit   + The Cafe at Aquavit   + Bistro du Vent-- Closed   + Shaburi   + Xing   + The Modern   + Bar Americain   + Alto   + Park Blue   + Mainland-- Closed   + Nobu 57   + Quality Meats   + Dona-- CLOSED   + Daisy May's   + 7Square-- CLOSED   + Amalia   + Fireside   + Anthos   + Patroon   + BLT Market   + Toloache   + Mia Dona   + Park Avenue Summer   + Convivio   + The Oak Room by guest reviewer Julie Besonen   + At Vermilion by guest reviewer Elaine Weiner   + Lunching at Inakaya, by guest reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Marea, by Guest Reviewer Susan Kane Walkush   + Le Bernardin   + New York Central -- A Reason To Eat at the Grand Hyatt Again   + Pampano Botaneria by Dara Pollak   

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