Marea: Nautical in the Best Way

In August, I wrote about The Butterfly. Which makes this my second writeup about an Altamarea Group NYC restaurant in a short while. I guess that's because my experiences there have been so enjoyable. Unlike The Butterfly, which is quite casual and in TriBeCa, Marea is more of a special-occasion destination in Midtown. Also different is that it's known for its seafood (marea is Spanish for "tide"), which I can confirm, after the Branzino I had, is delicious.

Branzino, pumpkin, coco beans, spigarello, marcona almonds

The seaside is also translated into the design, executed by Richard H. Lewis Architect and Franco Rosignolo, but in such an elegant and artistic way. Sure, there are seashells, but they're presented dramatically like individual sculptures—limestone bases and all—that they seem perfectly at home in the urban setting. I'd love to have the below one in my house, which, too, is not anywhere near a beach.

Then there's the actual art: a stunning collection of water-themed photography. Pieces appear throughout the dining room, of course, but some of my favorites were downstairs, in the restroom lounge, and even in the restroom stalls.

In the dining room

Restroom lounge

Restroom stall

A Rural Saturday

There are many treasures in the food and design worlds to be discovered just outside the city. An hour north by car, up the Palisades, lies Garrison and Cold Spring, two charming hamlets worthy of exploration.

The former is perhaps best-known for Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center, the mid 20th–century home and studio of the modern ceramicist that's situated above a former quarry amid 75 woodland acres. Standard tours are offered but so are volunteer landscape days, which is what we did and which I totally recommend—a really wonderful way to immerse yourself in the setting, help preserve a National Historic Landmark and World Monuments Watch Site, and meet like-minded people. . .plus they provide a lovely lunch.

Russel Wright's house

Dining area with Wright ceramicware

The wooden tub & view in Wright's studio

A 1959 letter from Edward J Wormley to Wright (notice the cigs)

Designer and fellow volunteer Anita Csordas exploring the 75-acre woodlands

A drive literally down the road takes you back a whole other century to Boscobel, an estate built in the early 1800's in the New York Federal style. We didn't tour the house, but we did walk the grounds, which include an orangery and stunning Hudson River views. 

The Boscobel orangery

Kousa dogwoods dot the estate grounds

Cold Spring is another short drive, and its Main Street is perfect for a window-shopping stroll, followed by a snack at one of the cafés. We were drawn most by the clapboard Cape-Cod style of Hudson Hil's, a clever moniker derived from the co-owner's name, Hilary Hayes, and the menu's offerings made of fresh, local ingredients from Hudson Valley farms. 

Homemade at Hudson Hil's with produce from local farms

Excessive Accessorizing?

First, the wine glass got accessorized with charms. Now it seems it's the cookie jar's turn. PlaceTile Designs introduces the ceramic Fits for the Occasion Cookie Chair, which has a socket for interchangeable, magnetically attached motif designs. Witness the below pineapple, turtle, and fleur-de-lis motifs. And there are many more...think holiday, safari, coastal. Apparently the options are endless. The oval below the motif is a writeable area that can be labeled with an erasable marker. Which could come in handy should you want to swap out the jar's contents from cookies to, say, pineapples, turtles, or fleur-de-lis. 

Dinner With Designer (DWD): Alder x Jennifer Carpenter

In the (not-so) gritty East Village, a sunny yellow door and shingle-style cladding beckon you into Alder, a new casual restaurant-pub by Wylie Dufresne, of wd~50 fame. Inside, the menu and the design wink strongly to the north, specifically to Cape Cod, where Dufresne spent his summers as a child. Of course this being NY, and Dufresne and executive chef Jon Bignelli being wunderkinds, classic American and New England fare has been creatively reinterpreted: Pigs in a blanket are filled with Chinese sausage; New England clam chowder comes with oyster crackers that are actual oysters, fried; fish & chips are generously heaped & tastefully presented on a slate slab.

Fish & Chips

Clam Chowder with Oyster Crackers

Pigs in a Blanket

The design, by Jennifer Carpenter Architect, is equally comfortable and familiar yet inventive. This was the first restaurant job for Carpenter, who incidentally is a sister of Dufresne's wife, Maile, although she's a seasoned architect with a successful portfolio of retail and residential projects. Her main move was the ceiling: a series of fins made of wood repurposed from a fence from, yes, Cape Cod. What could just be regular rustic appears minimalist and contemporary, thanks to each fin being strung on a blackened-steel rod, then canted at 1 of 12 different angles, creating a subtle rhythm. Wood appears elsewhere—the floor, the chairs, the banquette—yet ironically none of it is alder wood. Carpenter pays tribute to the wood at the entry door, its forged-bronze handle sporting indentations like an alder branch.

Entry with alder-like bronze handle

 Ceiling fins

 Menu