Little Maven
Restaurant · Chelsea ·
Modern American restaurant with unique dishes, great cocktails & vibe
Modern American restaurant with unique dishes, great cocktails & vibe
"At Chelsea’s Little Maven, a hanger-size space at 30 W. 18th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, we found a self-styled “modern American neighborhood restaurant” from the VCR Group that can feel at once flashy and intimate: a front room with abstract Fauvist murals, a bar lined with banquettes, a low-ceilinged enclave that feels like a celebrity hideout, and a rear dining room past a passage that has a church-basement vibe with black-and-white murals channeling Keith Haring. The food can be excellent — co-chef Conor Hanlon dry-ages the duck breast before searing so the texture is reminiscent of prime steak cooked medium-rare while retaining the dark, lacustrine flavor of duck; the two tenderloins arrive almost naked ($47) with a scatter of turnips and pears tourned into little ovals and a satisfyingly crunchy skin. We enjoyed several other dishes: a whipped tahini ($18) that’s almost indistinguishable from hummus but perked up by a great pickled relish of chiles and olives; tiny two-bite lobster rolls ($26) that were better than expected; a rich oxtail trofie pasta with ground meat and fried rosemary needles; and a disappointing broiled oyster topped with an overly salty, firm cheese-and-breadcrumb mantle (my companion removed the topping and ate it like a cracker). The by-the-glass wine list is exemplary with 16 quirky selections — we liked a straw-colored Basque getariako txakolina from Bodegas Hiruzta ($17) — and the cocktails are playful and sometimes complicated (The Fix Is In, $20, was served over crushed ice with an Amarena Fabbri cherry). Desserts, like a banana split ($19) with three ice creams, glazed banana, chocolate sauce and crunchy dehydrated berries, made for a pleasant finish. It’s not cheap — what feels like a modest meal for two can run nearly $300 with tax and tip — and the menu’s emphasis on appetizers makes it feel geared toward drinking as much as dining, but when the food hits it can be a real delight." - Robert Sietsema
"Entrepreneur Gary Vee’s NFT group isn’t just publishing TikToks about becoming a gazillionaire by waking up at 4am—they’re also doubling down on their restaurant investments. Little Maven is a modern American restaurant in Flatiron from Vee’s VCR Group. There, you can eat non-fungible tuna tartare and green curry steamed snapper in elegant space that’s—surprisingly—full of completely fungible paintings on physical canvasses. " - Will Hartman, Willa Moore
"The VCR group, whose founders include entrepreneur and blockchain enthusiast Gary Vee, has plans to open a private dining club with membership purchased via NFT. It’s an intriguing concept, but if you don’t have several thousand dollars to throw at a place that makes Soho House sound endearing, you can always try Little Maven. From the same restaurant group, this Flatiron spot has funky patterned booths, a back room with Keith Haring-style squiggles on the walls, and a menu of the Mediterranean-leaning American food that you see all over downtown Manhattan. There is, of course, pasta and tuna tartare, as well as a mushy scallop crudo that would find itself in a much better place if it ditched its globs of spicy aioli. The steak isn’t bad, and the caesar salad endive cups are interesting in a gimmicky sort of way, but Little Maven shouldn’t be your first pick in the area. Backup plan only." - Bryan Kim
"I dined at Little Maven, the New American restaurant from the Flyfish Club team, and found dishes like baked clams, Caesar cups, pumpkin miso agnolotti, steak frites, and banana splits for dessert on its menu." - Emma Orlow
"Located at 30 W. 18th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, Little Maven opens for dinner with an 85-seat front dining room, 13 bar seats and a 30-seat back room, and is presented as VCR Group’s first Manhattan debut after its high-profile NFT sale; partner and chef Josh Capon calls it “our restaurant for everyone.” The interior is maximalist — moss green paired with bold color and Turkish tiles — anchored by big murals (one behind the bar and a single-line drawing on a black backdrop that encircles the space), and the partners say the back room has been overhauled to be the place to be compared with when the location housed Scampi. The straightforward menu is organized by snacks ($6–$22) like whipped tahini and baked clams; appetizers ($18–$23) such as Caesar cups and octopus a la Sizzler; pastas ($27–$31) including pumpkin miso agnolotti; and mains ($38–$60) like king salmon and steak frites, with retro desserts such as banana split and chocolate mousse. The drinks program features six classic cocktails, six house concoctions, beer and a 150–200 bottle wine list that includes natural and organic selections. Little Maven opens Monday with hours from 5 p.m. to midnight seven days a week." - Melissa McCart