The Best Place to Watch New York Dress Up Again | Eater NY
"The storied corridor-turned-all-day bar and restaurant still connects Lexington and Park Avenues but has been expanded and dressed like a grand living room with tufted armchairs, deep corner banquettes and polished tables surrounding the iconic golden filigreed clock (a gift from Queen Victoria in 1893). It now doubles as an old-world bar and an all-day restaurant, serving breakfast, lunch, cocktails and dinner steps from the piano where Cole Porter wrote hits like “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” Cocooned from midtown chaos, mornings are peaceful with jazz overhead, blue-suited servers delivering coffee on Bernardaud china, newspapers, Chanel‑clad dog walkers and silver trays of warm croissants by pastry chef Jenny Chiu. The breakfast offerings include an eggs Benedict ($38) reconstructed on a sourdough English Muffin with your choice of country ham or smoked salmon, draped in a glossy sash of hollandaise. By lunchtime banker-types and social groups arrive; the all-day menu by chef Michael Anthony includes caviar service, raw-bar towers, a smoked turkey club layered with crispy bacon and ripe summer tomato, and a revived Waldorf salad composed of baby gem lettuces, honeycrisp apples, quartered grapes and caramelized walnuts topped with “a heavy snowfall’s worth of grated New York State cheddar.” As evening settles the pianist takes the stage and the room leans into nostalgic glamour — hostesses in floor-length gold sequin gowns and servers in crushed-velvet, wide-lapeled tuxedos by No Uniform — and the 12-seat bar fills quickly. Cocktails from Jeff Bell include originals such as the Waldorf (rye, sweet vermouth, bitters), the Commodore ($34, bourbon, lemon, pomegranate) and the Dr. Cook ($32, Tito’s Vodka, Luxardo Maraschino, lime, grapefruit). “Hotel bars are the foundation of classic cocktails,” said Bell, and his list also offers four ice-cold martinis, three Old Fashioneds ($30 to $34) and seasonally changing drinks like a Rhuby Slipper ($30) that leans on fresh rhubarb juice and lemon balm. Snacks to pair with drinks include housemade Cheez-Its, roasted nuts with seaweed and sesame furikake, a platter of roasted and raw vegetables with a sweet French onion-ish dip ($28) and pigs in a blanket ($28) made from Chiu’s golden puff pastry and Anthony’s homemade sausages. Dinner items are unfussy and celebratory: a seafood tower ($118), New England crab cakes, Benton’s ham with biscuits ($24), lobster rolls ($53) topped with caviar and truffles, and beef sliders ($36) with cheese, caramelized onions, pickles and zesty katsu sauce. For a luxurious nightcap, Bell mixes a Reserve Rob Roy using Yamazaki Distiller’s Edition Whiskey, Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, La Venaria Reale Riserva and the addition of Benedictine; “This is such an artful and historic cocktail,” said Bell." - Andrea Strong
