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Forbes
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
David Rockwell On Restaurant Design That Sets The Stage For Memories
Legendary architect and designer David Rockwell In the theater world, there's a saying that no one leaves a show humming the scenery. While it's true that great performances usually take precedence over set design, the latter can still have a profound impact on an audience's imagination and experience, whether they are conscious of it or not. The same is true for the look and layout of a restaurant, which is itself a stage for a different type of performance. No one knows restaurant design better than David Rockwell, one of the most famous architects and designers in the world, as well as a set designer for more than 100 theatrical productions, both on and off Broadway. Rockwell Group, the New York City–headquartered firm that he founded, just celebrated its 40th anniversary last year. The child of a vaudeville dancer and choreographer, Rockwell's passion for the theater comes through in his work, whether he's creating a set, restaurant, hotel, playground or even a hospital. He strikes a thoughtful balance between the various elements, be they background players or the stars of the scene, and the Rockwell Group's roster of restaurant projects reads like a who's who of the culinary world, including chef Nobu Matsuhisa's Nobu restaurants and hotels; Danny Meyer's Union Square Cafe; the NYC outpost of chef José Andrés' Zaytinya; and chef Daniel Boulud's new steakhouse, La Tête d'Or, which opened late last year. In fact, Rockwell himself has been inducted into the James Beard Foundation's 'Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America.' The Interview, Part One In this two-part discussion, Rockwell reflects on his extensive career and speaks to the many considerations that go into designing a restaurant. (The interview was conducted in June, at Rockwell Group headquarters in Union Square, and has been edited for length and flow.) Almost all the work we do involves an audience and some live experience, but while the net result might be creating a place that's super memorable, we don't start out by thinking about the design being noticed. We spend a lot of time speaking to the chef and the operator about what they want, and the space also dictates a lot. But if you think about restaurants you've been in that make an impact, there are certain things that stick with you. What is the first view? How are you invited in? How does it welcome you? As I think about all of our recent restaurants and what people find memorable about them—Din Tai Fung, The Corner Store, La Tête d'Or, COQODAQ, or The View—they're totally different, but they are all very choreographed. And they are all a sequence of spaces that, even within very big spaces, focus on what the experience is like at the table. Exactly right—how the views unfold as you move through the space. The main dining room of La Tête d'Or, with the wood-burning grill at center stage The really best clients come in with lots of ideas, but not what they want it to look like. So, in the case of La Tête d'Or, [chef]Something as simple as chairs and banquettes—those are really the backbone of a restaurant. How do you sit there? How are you aggregated in groups? If we do our job right, we have a point of view that is strong enough that design decisions aren't arbitrary. Archways of light in COQODAQ's dining room We're working on a new book about hospitality, so I've been thinking about the source of ideas. In terms of lighting, when I was 12, we moved from the Jersey Shore to Guadalajara, Mexico, and that was such a significant thing for me in terms of light and color temperature and the way light feels. So I've always had this heightened sensitivity about light. Then I worked as an assistant lighting designer on Broadway—I had taken some time off from architecture school—and I had a revelation. There was a moment during rehearsal, where one light just pierced a round window and landed on the center of the stage, and it was the first time I realized that light is like the cinematographer of spaces. It tells you where to look. So I started to think about that in restaurants. Lighting has so many different jobs. It creates the way things feel. It's the thing that wakes up the eye. Contrast is very important in lighting. There's a reason why candles are a primal source that brings everyone together. In theater design, there is no cinematographer, so it's the lighting designer and the set designer that are figuring out how big the picture is. If you want to do a close-up in the theater, you have to do that with set and lighting. If you come out of a show and say, 'Boy, the sets were amazing,' that's not necessarily the first thing you want to remember, and that's probably true about a restaurant as well. So I think physical things do tend to stand out if they're discordant, but every restaurant has a different rhythm, and every restaurateur is interested in a different level of quiet or noisy. A while ago, there was a feeling that restaurants were noisy on purpose; we don't create noisy restaurants on purpose. But the other extreme is that I don't think people want a restaurant where you don't hear the clink of New York in the background. The same is true about seating. There's a very different kind of strategy when you're creating a restaurant where people are going to spend two-and-a-half hours eating dinner than a place like Din Tai Fung that has a one-hour turnover. The chairs are more vertical. The tables are hard surfaces. How involved are you in designing the back of the house—the kitchen space—and how it flows? There's always a kitchen consultant we work with who deals with the layout of the equipment, but we're very involved in the flow and the circulation. For the first Nobu, what [chef] Nobu [Matsuhisa] was most interested in was the sushi bar, but the sushi bar links to the kitchen, because some of the food is begun in the kitchen and finished at the sushi bar and vice versa. So both the bar and the kitchen were involved in the laying out of the space. I'm always out looking at things. I get a lot of inspiration from travel, and I see a lot of theater. I'm a Tony voter, so that means I'm going to at least 40 shows a year. I also eat out a lot. I'm always trying to ask why, digging deep and staying curious. [Check back here in a few days for the second half of this interview, including a look at some of Rockwell's upcoming projects.]
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Travel + Leisure
14-06-2025
- Travel + Leisure
This $11,000/Night Penthouse in NYC Was Designed to Give You the Best Sleep—As a New Mom, I Put It to the Test
It started as a distant pulse, a steady metronome, tugging me from the weight of my sleep. Beep, beep, beep. The sound was familiar, but not harsh. It didn't jolt; it nudged, like someone tapping on my shoulder, gently reminding me it's time. Beep, beep, beep. The noise grew closer. Warm, swaddled in a goose-down duvet, I drifted through the last threads of sleep, chasing the alarm with my fingers, a sound I hadn't heard in months. Waking up at the 212-room Equinox Hotel New York, in the popular Hudson Yards on Manhattan's West Side, doesn't feel like an interruption. It feels like a return. It had been 334 days since I had heard my alarm. With an early-rising 11-month-old, who, without fail, woke before our alarm buzzed each morning, sleep—let alone restful, continuous sleep—was a far-off dream. So when I got an invitation to spend the night at the Equinox Penthouse Suite, designed by actual sleep scientists to create an ideal shut-eye experience, I called in reinforcements: grandparents to report in for babysitting duty. A fire place lights the dining and living area. From the moment I entered the 38th-floor suite—or as the website calls it, 'sleep chamber'—I could tell this wasn't just a fancy hotel room—it was a space intentionally designed for optimal rest. Yes, it's massive—1,500 square feet or 2,000 with the optional add-on of an adjoining second bedroom—and yes, its past guest list reads like a who's who of Hollywood. But the David Rockwell decor—quiet and confident in its palate of black, gray, and warm beige—was not flashy. Inspired by Equinox Hotels CEO Christopher Nolan's apartment in Toronto, it's meant to evoke a peaceful NYC pied-à-terre. The wrap-around, floor-to-ceiling windows framed the best of the city (on a clear day, you can even glimpse the Statue of Liberty from the see-through fireplace while lying in bed), and the spacious living room and separate dining room were made for entertaining. But I wasn't here to regale; I was here to rest—and sleep is serious business at the Equinox Hotel New York. Panoramic city views from the bedroom. Jesse Dittmar/Equinox Hotels The pin-drop-silent suite is kept at a cool 66 degrees—and that and the blackout shades and lighting are easily controlled via a 'Dark, Quiet, Cool' button on a bedside iPad. But let's talk about the bed: Custom made for the brand, the king-sized nest is layered with handmade pillows and duvets using all-natural materials for optimal air circulation. Even better, there are temperature-regulating double duvets, providing individualized comfort for couples sharing a bed with even the greediest blanket hogs (guilty). 'Our Sleep System—which includes the rooms, beds, and everything on them—took two years to develop,' Nolan told Travel + Leisure . But sleep is top of mind even when you're not cocooned under the covers. The in-room AM + PM Rituals Program, for example, leads guests through meditation and movement on a massive TV to improve circadian rhythms. The apartment-sized bathroom, with a centerpiece tub, has custom Grown Alchemist products for both morning and night, each concocted with a special formula using herbs from the High Line, which sits steps away. The RoomBar, according to Nolan, 'flips the traditional hotel mini bar on its head,' with herbal, sleep-inducing teas, high-performance eye masks, superfoods, and more. And the in-room dining menu offers snacks to support natural melatonin production. Even the 27,000-square-foot spa, which has cryotherapy treatments, IV drips, and an infrared sauna, houses a Wave Table, which claims to provide the equivalent of three hours of sleep in 30 minutes. Suddenly, the $11,000/night Penthouse Suite price tag seemed like a bargain to my bone-tired body. 'We believe sleep is the most crucial aspect of one's health, which is why every touchpoint in the room and beyond is designed with the 24-hour circadian rhythm in mind,' Nolan said. And the Equinox is on to something: 'Sleep tourism' is a buzzy phrase in 2025, and it makes sense—according to the CDC, roughly 36 percent of Americans are getting inadequate sleep. As a result, guests are increasingly prioritizing their well-being on vacation. They want to do more than relax; they want to sleep, and sleep well—and so hotels are waking up to the importance of providing a good snooze. The deep soaking tub in the suite's bathroom. Jesse Dittmar/Equinox Hotels After sleeping like babies, my husband and I, energized, made our way to the 60,000-square-foot fitness club—this is the Equinox, after all—for an invigorating hour with a trainer. Guests get unlimited access to group classes and personal training, plus an indoor saltwater pool, a heated outdoor pool with panoramic views of Manhattan, and our favorite, the outdoor barrel saunas. We moseyed back to our room in our robes, as if we were hotel residents, our bodies reminded of what true rest feels like. A gorgeous room service breakfast spread—among it, what my husband claimed were the 'best blueberries he's ever tasted,' fueled us before we packed our bags and began the journey home. Just a 45-minute subway ride away, it somehow felt like we had been transported to another place and time. But as I learned in under 24 hours at the Equinox Hotel New York, sleep is less something you do and more somewhere you go .
The Star
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Why the revolving restaurant is making a comeback
When your ears pop on the elevator ride up, that's how you know you've arrived at the View, the revolving bar and restaurant on the 47th and 48th floors of the New York Marriott Marquis in the United States. On a recent Saturday evening, the restaurant thrummed with families, groups of friends and couples sipping champagne and devouring seafood towers as they admired the changing skyline. Every 45 minutes, just enough time to leisurely imbibe a cocktail, the lounge makes a full in Times Square in 1985 and closed in 2020, the View is the latest in a string of rotating restaurants to make an unlikely return, this one shepherded by restaurateur Danny Meyer and architect David Rockwell. Gone are the outdated pleather dining chairs and gaudy carpet, replaced by blue velvet banquettes, a black marble bar and elegant Art Deco-style glass installations."This is one of the best views,' said Joseph Mirrone, a former New Yorker who had stopped by with his son for a post-theatre coffee and dessert. "You can sit in one spot and the whole city revolves around you.' Meyer, who has his own warm childhood memories of Stouffer's Top of the Riverfront, a revolving restaurant in St Louis, was eager to update the form. The View, the revolving restaurant and lounge atop the New York Marriott Marquis, in Manhattan, which completes a rotation every 45 minutes at the lounge level and every hour at the restaurant level. Photos: Yuvraj Khanna/The New York Times "When Marriott approached us, it felt like, OK, well, that's something we've never done before,' he said. "When else is someone going to say, 'Would you like to do a revolving restaurant in the theatre district?'' Revolving restaurants are widely regarded as novelties, relics of the 1960s and '70s, when skylines surged ever higher and architects wanted to give the public a front seat to the rapid development happening around them. La Ronde, a restaurant above the Ala Moana shopping centre in Honolulu, was the first in the United States, opening to the public in 1961. Its architect, John Graham Jr, best known for his work on the Space Needle in Seattle, patented the design. It required the construction of a wheeled turntable that could move around a stationary core, like a train on rails. The restaurant inspired countless imitators, in cities large and small, with names that alluded to their singular party trick: the Changing Scene, in Rochester, New York; the Spindletop, in Houston; the Eagle's Nest in Indianapolis; and the Summit, in Detroit, all promised a dining experience unlike any other. Architect John C. Portman Jr incorporated them into a handful of the hotels he designed in Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as the US$400mil (RM1.8bil) Marriott Marquis. "Revolving restaurants, like most of the other aspects of this building, are a show that has been playing out of town for a long time and has never much been missed on Broadway,' Paul Goldberger, The New York Times architecture critic, wrote in a 1985 review of the hotel. "But this will at least be a novelty.' Visual landmarks throughout the restaurant and lounge help guests and servers alike navigate the space at the View. The review may have presaged the beginning of the end: La Ronde closed in the 1990s after its machinery failed. The Summit became too expensive to maintain, and shuttered in 2000. Skies, at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri, went out of business in 2011 as the hotel's guests increasingly opted to dine off site. Stouffer's Top of the Riverfront permanently closed in 2014. Others remain open for service but ceased spinning: Both the Sun Dial in Atlanta and the restaurant atop the Reunion Tower in Dallas were the sites of gruesome accidents. The former Summit space in Detroit houses a new restaurant, but remains stationary more than 25 years after it stopped turning. But what goes around tends to come back around: the Polaris in Atlanta got moving again in 2022 with a sustainable, farm-to-table menu. In 2024, the Equinox, the revolving restaurant atop the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, was put back into motion after an 18-year hiatus, using hydraulics to get it going. The San Francisco Chronicle reported last April that plans are underway to reopen it to the public as a bar called Club Meyer, the return of revolving restaurants feels part and parcel of the post-pandemic dining shift. Diners are craving "small bistros and neighbourhood places, and places that turned up the dial on the experience, the kind of thing you could never get at home', he said. "We're doing both.' An alcove with a piano is another visual landmark at the View, atop the New York Marriott Marquis, in Manhattan. Rockwell, who first visited the Marquis lounge in 1986, said the opportunity to work on the View was "irresistible'. After only a few years of disuse, the restaurant's mechanics operated just fine; most of his work involved giving the restaurant its 'Mad Men-era aesthetic' while being thoughtful about the experience of dining in a moving building. An image in the public domain shows the design for the rotating restaurant was patented by Graham Jr, one of the designers of the Space Needle in Seattle. Photo: The New York Times To help diners and servers find their tables — it's common for visitors to become slightly disoriented when they return from the restroom — the firm added visual landmarks: a dramatic spiral staircase between the lounge and the restaurant, an alcove for a live piano player and an impossible-to-miss raw bar. "People hear 'rotating restaurant' and they think it's going to be moving fast, like they're on a carnival ride,' said Charlie Stoop, a bartender at the View. "But it's really not like that. It's a really slow journey.' (The lounge rotates about 8ft (2.4m) per minute.)So far, the new View has been well received. Julio Montalvo, who was drinking cocktails with a friend in the lounge, used to visit the restaurant before the 2020 closing, he said, but stopped after the food and service declined. The high-end cocktails in the new edition won him over. Lois Blank and Keesie Spector, both 83 and friends since they were 13, had also stopped by for a tipple. They last visited the View more than a decade ago, but after hearing news about the renovations, decided to return. "It's very nice,' Blank said. "Lovely,' Spector chimed in. Perhaps the View, the Loupe Lounge, Polaris and others might inspire even more revolving restaurant revivals. "There's an inherent magic in dining while the world spins around you,' said Daniel A. Nadeau, a general manager at the Marquis. "I'll be curious to see if this sparks a little revolving renaissance.' – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Globe and Mail
08-04-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Casa Cork by David Rockwell, in partnership with the Cork Collective with Corticeira Amorim, brings together acclaimed designers and brands for an immersive installation and dynamic events program
MILAN , /CNW/ -- The sustainability-focused nonprofit Cork Collective and globally-renowned architecture and design firm Rockwell Group have partnered with cork producer Corticeira Amorim to launch robust programming, education workshops, food & beverage events, and a product showcase at Casa Cork by David Rockwell –a living laboratory to showcase innovative application of cork during Milan Design Week. From an immersive installation to an international student design competition and live discussions, visitors will experience this 100% renewable material in an entirely new light. One of the world's most sustainable materials, cork comes from the harvested bark of the cork oak tree and is obtained without cutting down the tree itself. Cork products can be recycled again and again, while retaining their ability to sequester carbon. Casa Cork's interior and furnishings are made almost entirely of cork and showcase innovative cork furniture and products from emerging and established international designers and product manufacturers. These include a bar and chandelier custom designed by Rockwell Group for Artemest, the destination for Italian craftsmanship and design; a custom illuminated wall feature, sconces and pendants designed by Rockwell Group and manufactured by Thomas Cooper Studio, a Lusive company; and fabrics, tiles, and wallcoverings from 4Spaces. Flanking the entrance to the bar and tasting lounge is a display of cork's applications in collectible design. Objects in these vignettes further highlight the versatility and beauty of the material, crafted by design-industry luminaries from around the world, including Campana Brothers, Tom Dixon, Made In Situ by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, Grain, Toni Grilo (Blackcork) , Maddalena Casadei (designer) and Falegnameria Pisu (artisan) for Pretziada, and Susana Godinho (Sugo Cork Rugs) . Other product partners in the experience include: Chilewich, Daniel Michalik, De Castelli, Maya Romanoff, Roche Bobois, Samuel & Sons, Stackabl, Suber Design, USM Modular Furniture, Vitra, V&N Interiors, Wolf-Gordon, and Bocci. Rockwell Group has commissioned Spain's multidisciplinary art workshop Factum Arte to scan a majestic tree in a cork forest. The tree was then 3D-printed and replicated in the central gallery of Casa Cork, acting as the central visual focal point of the installation. "We've spent two years imagining and dreaming about what Casa Cork could be, and I'm thrilled to see it realized in a way that soars beyond our expectations. Now that the doors are open, we can't wait for the design community to discover cork's potential as a central, sustainable material of the future. Our hope is that Casa Cork and the events and demonstrations taking place there this week will inspire architects and designers to not only experiment with cork, but also find ways to regenerate and reuse materials in their own practices and initiatives." - David Rockwell , founder and President, Rockwell Group "We are thrilled to be part of this initiative, which is, in itself, a true work of art. We hope that everyone - designers, architects, artists, and enthusiasts - leave here as a true Cork ambassadors - a material that has distinct properties on performance enhanced by unique sustainability credencials. The various applications showcased at Casa Cork are living proof of its limitless potential. Just as importantly, may each of us, as individuals, turn the act of opening a bottle of wine or champagne into an even more special moment by choosing to recycle the cork, giving it a new life, perhaps even as a piece of art." - Antonio Rios de Amorim , President and CEO, Corticeira Amorim Lighting design for Casa Cork is by Focus Lighting, and the global design consultancy 2x4 contributed Casa Cork's strategy and branding. Food & Beverage Experience Throughout the week, Casa Cork will also serve as an event space and wine bar. Guests will be able to enjoy complimentary wines and Prosecco from Château Miraval Côtes de Provence, sustainable winery Terre Margaritelli and Consorzio Tutela Prosecco DOC, along with offerings provided by local artisanal microbakery Le Polveri and La Porrona. Other food and beverage partners include Italian coffee company illycaffé, Dorsia, Le Specialità restaurant, and culinary experimentation project Bar Versini. Talks & Demonstrations Talks and demonstrations will aim to educate guests about cork as well as sustainable design practices. Casa Cork Salon Series: Conversations on Designing for the Future Led and organized by Tiffany Jow, editor-in-chief of the New York–based design journal Untapped, Casa Cork's two-part talk program will explore ideas adjacent to cork, including craft, timelessness, manufacturing, and developing a circular economy. Speakers include Yves Béhar, Deyan Sudjic , Suchi Reddy , Tom Dixon , and David Rockwell . Sugo Cork Rugs Weaving Demo Wednesday, April 9: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Experience weaving with cork and other natural, recycled materials like cotton and wool. Led by textile designer Susana Godinho of Sugo Cork Rugs , this demo will showcase traditional and modern weaving techniques that blend innovation, tradition, and sustainability. Cork Molding Demo Thursday, April 10 : 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Led by Students from Parsons School of Design For the full list of events, please visit Student Design Competition Cork Collective is launching its inaugural Student Design Competition, supported by Chilewich and Corticeira Amorim, as a way to engage younger generations and invite them to experiment and innovate with products made from cork. Twelve students from Parsons School of Design in New York and 67 students from Politecnico di Milano participated in simultaneous spring studios and presented their concepts to an international jury that includes Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, The Museum of Modern Art; John McPhee, CEO, Chilewich; Susan Sellers, Founding Partner and Executive Creative Director, 2x4; Giulio Cappellini, Designer and Art Director; Carlos Veloso dos Santos , CEO, Amorim Cork Italia ; Carlos Bessa, Director of Corporate Communications, Corticeira Amorim; Noah Schwarz, Vice President of Product Design, MillerKnoll, and Annie Block, Executive Editor, Interior Design. Six student finalists from Parsons and 6 from Politecnico will exhibit their work at Casa Cork. Their concepts highlight the materiality of cork and a broad range of product types, including furniture and lighting, objects, wearable accessories, and toys. The exhibition features sculptural floating pool mats, table lamps made from cork and hand-blown glass, a multisensory light and aromatherapy device, and a lightweight "play case" that holds building blocks that children can use at home or when they travel. Address: 31 Via Solferino, Milano, Italy Opening Dates and Hours: April 8-9, 2025 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. April 10 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. April 11–12 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Website and Social Media @corkcollective About Cork Collective Casa Cork is a project of the Cork Collective, an exciting new sustainability initiative focused on cork collection and recycling, and dedicated to transforming used natural cork stoppers into valuable resources, showcasing its versatility and sustainability. Through the collection, recycling, and repurposing of natural cork stoppers, the Cork Collective's mission is to galvanize the hospitality industry and the public to envision new possibilities for cork, one of the most sustainable and remarkable natural resources in the world. Fueled by expertise and passion of founding partners Rockwell Group, Amorim, BlueWell, and Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits, the Cork Collective creates a 'closed-loop' system where resources are reused, recycled, and regenerated to minimize waste and promote sustainability. About Rockwell Group Based in downtown New York with satellite offices in Madrid and Los Angeles , Rockwell Group specializes in a wide array of work from luxury hospitality, cultural, and healthcare projects, to educational, product, and set design. Founded in 1984 by David Rockwell , Rockwell Group takes a cross-disciplinary approach to its inventive array of immersive projects. A strong commitment to explore and experiment resulted in the formation of the LAB at Rockwell Group, a design innovation studio that blends interactive technology, architecture, strategy, and storytelling. Crafting a unique and individual narrative concept for each project is fundamental to Rockwell Group's successful design approach. From the big picture to the last detail, the story informs and drives the design. Follow on Instagram @rockwellgroup. About Corticeira Amorim Corticeira Amorim is the world's largest cork processing group. Founded in 1870, the company now operates dozens of business units across five continents, with a diverse network of 30,000 clients generating 939 million Euros in annual revenues. With a strong commitment to sustainability, Corticeira Amorim offers a portfolio of solutions, materials, and products for some of the most advanced and demanding industries, including aerospace, automotive, construction, design and architecture, as well as wine and spirits. Follow on Instagram @amorimcork.
Forbes
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
7 New NYC Restaurants You Need To Try This Spring
Meili Just in time for spring, a slew of new restaurants has opened in New York City. Head uptown for a chic dining experience by an esteemed Italian design house, indulge in a steakhouse helmed by one of the city's most renowned chefs, or grab pizza in a lively nightlife setting. From intimate boîtes to larger-than-life spots, there's something new for every palate. La Tete D'Or 1. La Tête d'Or Chef Daniel Boulud's highly anticipated restaurant has finally arrived, re-imagining the classic steakhouse experience through a French culinary lens. Before you even sit down, you'll appreciate the tasteful and expansive David Rockwell–designed dining room; while many steakhouses are dark and outdated, La Tête d'Or entices with sexy lighting, high ceilings and cozy velvet booths. Start off your dining experience with the Seafood Salad Louie made with lettuce, avocado, chunks of lobster and a tangy French cocktail sauce, or try the wood-fired bone marrow canoe topped with pastrami and sauerkraut for a deli-inspired bite. You'll naturally gravitate to the steaks for your main course, but their milk-fed NJ veal chop is also outstanding and worth a try. Potato enthusiasts, you've died and gone to heaven at La Tête d'Or, where there seven potato sides to entice including a delicious tartiflette. Leave some room for dessert — the Chocolate Amer cake is delightful and you can also order an ice cream sundae with a wide variety of toppings including passionfruit marshmallows and housemade sprinkles. Bar Mercer 2. Bar Mercer Bar Mercer just opened this past January but somehow feels like it's always been there. Step inside from Houston Street and you're greeted by a glowing bar, checkered floors, and a cross-section of effortlessly cool New Yorkers. Lately a lot of gimmick-y restaurants have hit the New York restaurant scene (a few blocks down, adults line up at 5 pm to eat pizza rolls every day) but Chef Preston Clark (who's also the executive chef at Lure Fishbar) focuses on doing the classics just right. Try their broiled oysters which will wow you with their bacon chili better deliciousness and crispy texture. The fish and chips are perfectly flaky served with a tasty tartar sauce and mushie peas to get the real deal UK rendition of the dish. Pornstar Martini lovers, Bar Mercer's rendition of this cocktail is slightly tarter than its wildly saccharine counterparts making it a sip-worthy standout. For dessert try their berry cobbler which comes piping hot with a generous serving of vanilla ice cream. OPTO 3. OPTO Housed in the former Periyali space, OPTO is the brainchild of Chef Alex Tubero and co-owner Nicola Kotsoni (who ran Periyali for 38 years). OPTO is a symphony of all things Mediterranean, from Greek dips to classic Italian pasta dishes to Canary Island-inspired seafood dishes, right down to the carefully curated green Amaro Chef Tubero discovered on a recent Sardinia trip. Their grilled octopus served with potatoes and mint is a must, as is the king salmon crudo which comes with a side of crunchy lavash. For mains, opt for the branzino, cooked perfectly with crispy skin, and the long and plump macaroni are covered in a delicious tomato sauce are irresistible. As mentioned earlier, the aperitivo selection is highly curated by the Chef himself, and if you're lucky he'll tell you some of the stories behind discovering the tipples served at OPTO. Crazy Pizza 4. Crazy Pizza You wouldn't expect a place called Crazy Pizza to be boring now, would you? Pizza meets a party atmosphere at this new SoHo restaurant which already has 14 other locations worldwide. Upon arrival you're immediately swept into the restaurant's nightlife ambiance with loud music and skilled pizzaiolos entertaining patrons by tossing pizza dough in the air. While entertainment is front and center here you can't dismiss the food which is tasty and high quality. The pizzas here are made without yeast from a 24-hour dough which is crispy and light; opt for their tartufo pizza which covered in black truffle paste and black truffle shavings. It's the kind of bite you that transports you to their other locations like Monte Carlo or Porto Cervo. Their pennette all'arrabiata has a little kick, and their tiramisu is rich and satisfying to cap off your meal. Lively and fun, this is a great place to start a girls' night out or a go on a date with someone you'd like to mainly look at and talk to slightly less. Upon the Palace 5. Upon the Palace Ever craved xiao long bao the size of your head—that are actually good? Tribeca's Upon the Palace serves them with a straw to savor every drop. After eating this memorable appetizer you'll want to dive into their tasty lobster friend rice and sizzling black pepper filet mignon as your mains. An order of their walnut prawns cooked with Grand Marnier and oranges adds a little texture to your meal. This new Chinese restaurant also has a fun selection of cocktails; their Lychee Peachy Tini made with Haku Vodka and peach liqueur balances out the spice of their dan dan noodles, for example. Spanning 7,000 square feet over two floors, it's perfect for group feasts (Peking duck, anyone?) in a sleek setting. Armani Ristorante 6. Armani Ristorante Head uptown for a fashionable bite at the new Armani Ristorante located on Madison Avenue. The chic restaurant spans two floors and with its prime shopping location is equally good for lunch or dinner after a day of retail therapy. Kick things off with a bellini made with fresh peach puree or a sgroppino that will transport your taste buds to the Italian coastline. Order the lobster with sabayon and grapefruit before you dive into the delicious pastas. Their Genovese cannelloni is topped with Parmesan cheese and crispy kale adding some crunchy texture to a classic, and you'll love their Plin with wagyu oxtail. There's also a delicious suckling pig belly with a rich polenta that deserves your attention as a main dish. The menu reflects Mr. Armani's childhood, as well as featuring some New York-inspired dishes for this new locale. Meili 7. Meili (also featured image) Descend down the stairs of striking new Williamsburg Chinese restaurant for a delicious meal of Sichuan street food with an additional standalone plant-based menu, perfect to take your vegan friend to. If you like spice, you've come to the right place; the pork dumplings in chili oil and Chongqing spicy chicken will make your tastebuds tingle. Order a refreshing (and cooling) cucumber salad to balance things out. Their fish blossom entrée is a great not spicy option plated beautiful to resemble a flower with house-made sweet and sour sauce, pine nuts, peas and carrots. To end your meal, try their lemon ripieno which is a sorbetto made with lemons from Italy to refresh your palate.
