Stanford White Studio

Chatwal hotel lobby mural by unknown artist

I had a lovely dinner last night at the Stanford White Studio inside the Chatwal hotel-also home to the Lambs Club. Weirdly, I hadn't been here before, even though the super-talented Thierry Despont did the interiors two years ago. I recommend a visit if you're at all into Art Deco--and even if you're not. The lobby (where there's an amazing double-height mural but I don't know by who), restaurant, upstairs bar (where Andrew Andrew DJ every Thurs night), and White studio are quite well done. The White studio is the hotel's special-event space - a gorgeous wood-paneled room done in the style of Stanford White (who built the building that now houses the hotel in 1905 for the Lambs Club, a social club for theater professionals) - that's a unique option for a private dinner for 20 or so. So long as you don't get creeped out by the Evelyn Nesbit portraits on the wall--and the red swing that's rumored to be installed soon... I also recommend coming for chef Geoffrey Zakarian's cuisine--unusual and flavorful.

McKim, Mead & White rendering in the Stanford White Studio

Portraits of Evelyn Nesbit

Slow-cooked sea bass with caramelized fennel, spinach & roasted tomato beurre blanc

The lobby bar

Empire State Building pendants in the upstairs bar

 

Three Days of Lafayette

Last weekend I was immersed in Lafayette, Andrew Carmellini's latest, a French restaurant designed by Roman + Williams. It started with Friday night dinner in the private dining room, which for one of those rooms is quite nice, swaddled in warm wood paneling punctuated by a vignette of mismatched mirrors & other vintage-y objets. Food was served family style but again quite good for that mode, the chicken and the gingerbread-chocolate-chip cookies being the best (not eaten together, of course).

Lafayette's wood-paneled private dining room.

Sunday was the friends & family brunch, which I came to as the guest of my friend, architect Stephanie Goto, who herself has designed some stunners (Aldea, Corton). This time I really got to take in the environment, which, although a touch loud, is quite remarkable. The color palette is sophisticated (browns, burgundies, and yellows, instead of the predominantly red seen in most American interpretations of a French bistro), the proportions and light grand, and the details surprising (booths with their own lamp, playful murals randomly appearing on walls). As for dish, we feasted on lemon pancakes with fresh berries, smoked salmon benedict, and egg white frittata with mushrooms, all delicious, the latter probably being the unexpected tastiest. Two other designers joined us and the aspect they all focused on the most was the small leather tray the check is presented on. They loved the feel and the logo and the leather itself. Go figure.

The welcome card to friends & family brunch.

Random wall sketch.

Leather tray for check.

Smoked salmon benedict, brioche, sauce choron.

Finally, Monday night was the second in the three-part series Dining + Design: Conversations with Chefs and Architects, coproduced by the New School and the James Beard Foundation, featuring AC himself with Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of Roman + Williams. (The first was Blue Hill's Dan Barber and architect Peter Guzy.) My day job's obligations to cover ICFF made me miss the first half of their talk, but I did catch Robin and Stephen dissect the subtle differences between the Dutch and Lafayette, bc at first glance, they could look and/or feel similar. But the Dutch is the more casual of the two, supposed to be like an upscale American roadside diner or waffle house, with big round pendant globes, rounded corners, the font of the signage in print not script. Whereas Lafayette is more formal and layered, art deco columns clad in Provence-style tiles, chefs that are visible wearing tall white toques, French but through an international lens.

Here's the video of the discussion. The last in the series is June 10, 6pm, with David Chang and the Design Agency.

The New School's Fabio Parasecoli, Robin Standefer, Andrew Carmellini, Stephen Alesch beneath a rendering of Lafayette.

Mesa Grill, Flatiron District, NYC

Design: Whenever I walk down lower 5th Ave in the evenings, which used to be very often bc of the former location of my day job, I'd pass by Mesa Grill and wonder how it is nowadays. I'd first and only been in the late 1990's, when I'd just moved to Manhattan, on a date with a guy. (I'd lived on the UES at the time and I remember him saying "I'm taking you downtown for dinner.") I'd been awed by the buzz, the mushroom columns, the double-height loft space. Today, the columns and loftiness still remain, but the buzz has certainly died down. Yet Jim Biber's design from when the restaurant first opened in 1991 is still largely intact and surprisingly current. What's weird is that the mini renovation, or flame-ovation, done by Rockwell Group in the early 2000's is what dates it. You see it in the canopy above the bar, where Biber had installed huge ahead-of-their-time industrial fans, and in a few other spots. Apparently the flame theme carries through to the Mesa Grills in Las Vegas and the Bahamas. Billy, the bartender, has been at the NYC outpost since it opened and is a font of MG info. I recommend eating at the bar to chat with him and to try to comprehend the flame-ovation.

Vintage industrial fan from Jim Biber's original 1991 design

Original waxed-vinyl banquette upholstery that's kinda cheeky/ironic now

The flame-ovation above the bar

Dish: Fortunately, the food is still good here. I wouldn't say amazing enough to go out of your way for it, but dependable and tasty if you're in the neighborhood. We had the Gala apple salad, fresh & tart (in a good way), and the shrimp tamale, which, even though an appetizer, is big enough to serve as an entree. The bread basket included a mini muffin that was half yellow corn and half blue corn, like a Southwestern ying and yang.

Yellow & blue corn mini muffin

Gala apple salad

Shrimp tamale