Cafeteria
American restaurant · Chelsea ·
Truffle mac 'n' cheese, crispy shrimp, salmon BLT, great cocktails
Truffle mac 'n' cheese, crispy shrimp, salmon BLT, great cocktails
"I learned that the Cafeteria at Downtown’s Hotel Figueroa will close this month after Noble 33 announced the shutdown in December, just six days after workers notified management of plans to unionize. Employees claim problems began when Noble 33 took over in 2021 — notably not backfilling positions and expecting staff to take on more duties without additional pay — and that about 100 food-and-beverage workers will be out of work. Unite Here Local 11 helped file an NLRB complaint in January 2024 alleging Noble 33 suppressed labor organizing; Noble 33 counters that its contract with the hotel contains a kill clause tied to unionization, a contention both Hotel Figueroa and Unite Here Local 11 deny." - Mona Holmes
"The restaurant called Cafeteria rents blankets for $7 and insists they are sanitary; you don’t get to keep them, though you can avoid the charge by bringing your own Afghan or small blanket from home." - Robert Sietsema
"When I visited the Chelsea spot Cafeteria, its menu felt unapologetically basic — avocado toast, kale salad, overpriced “street tacos,” and era-specific fusion like mac and cheese eggrolls (also described as spring rolls) and falafel tacos — yet somehow perfect. Opened in 1998 with Tyler Florence as the opening chef and known as a Sex and the City hangout, it’s a 24/7 time capsule with an early-aughts aesthetic: black-and-white palette, hole-filled IKEA-like chairs, garage-door windows, and a bar emblazoned with the words “beer,” “liquor,” and “wine.” The place still draws an eccentric, fashiony crowd (I noticed one woman in a skin-tight yellow vinyl jumpsuit), the servers aren’t in a rush, and it makes unlikely late-night fare possible — hanger steak at 3 a.m., a surprisingly good meatloaf served with mashed potatoes and green beans — alongside simple but solid cocktails (cosmos and a whiskey-and-Averna option) and novelty offerings like the $18 “mac attack” mac-and-cheese flight. Its unchanged menu and website slideshow of mostly shirtless men make it easy to mock, but its weirdly chic, approachable vibe explains why it has persevered and still fills up." - Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
"Still a nostalgic late-night Chelsea fixture, Cafeteria serves dependable American comfort food 24 hours (the drinks are strong and the meatloaf is a surprise winner) and retains that specific NYC throwback vibe even as many contemporaries have shuttered." - Eater Staff
"And tomorrow, August 13, Dausch is helping put on what’s being dubbed New York’s first-ever queer food festival, Queer Cafeteria, which will land in Socrates Sculpture Park." - Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner