(Bloomberg) -- World-class art and four-star food are long time dining companions in New York City. But a new restaurant from the team who founded art powerhouse Hauser & Wirth is looking to supercharge the concept with a forest of fine art.
Manuela will be the first New York outpost of Artfarm, the hospitality group founded by Manuela and Iwan Wirth. The duo have commissioned artists from their megagallery to create furniture and a series of large-scale artworks that fill the space, which is located on a scenic Prince Street corner between Wooster and West Broadway.
Bloomberg Pursuits got a preview of the art and the food for the restaurant, which officially opens on Oct. 29.
The art immersion begins immediately: Diners step past the front door and through a curtain designed by the fashion designer Duro Olowu. Inside, the first thing you’ll see is a whimsical chandelier made from carved vines and (recycled) plastic mushrooms by the artist Mika Rottenberg, hanging over the bar. For the most part, the art is a collection of crowd-pleasers, a combination of colorful abstraction and gauzy figuration. The restaurant’s primary-colored tables are by the veteran abstract artist Mary Heilmann; a wallpaper by Lorna Simpson that depicts a woman hovers over the stairs to the basement. The private dining room has an abstract mural by Pat Steir that incorporates the octogenarian’s signature drips; inside that same room is a 23-foot-long mosaic table by Rashid Johnson. (Like most contemporary artists, these people aren’t household names; but for anyone familiar with the art world, they’re recognizable heavy hitters.)
The commissions are augmented by a collection of smaller-scale samples from the gallery’s roster. There’s a lot of work on paper and editioned prints, including pieces by Arshile Gorky, Philip Guston, Jenny Holzer, Roni Horn and Zoe Leonard. Paintings include a large landscape by Nicolas Party and, somewhat bewilderingly, a canvas by the artist Avery Singer about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
None of the art is for sale, according to a representative.
Flashback to the 1970s
At this point, the team behind Artfarm is expert at opening dining rooms. There are now a dozen properties in the US and Europe that combine the Wirths’ preoccupation with art and farm-to-fork fresh food. They include the Audley Public House in London, adorned with a ceiling mural by the artist Phyllida Barlow, and the original Manuela, in the company’s gallery complex in Los Angeles. Part of the group’s success has been expanding its reach beyond the typical art crowd: Most of the people at the Manuela in Downtown LA—or the Audley, for that matter—might be hard-pressed to ID any of the art on the walls.
The choice to put this inaugural East Coast Manuela in Soho comes from a desire to hark back to the neighborhood’s days as an artists haven, says Artfarm US operations director Ben Crofton. “One of the restaurants that happened to be diagonal from here in the ’70s was called Food,” he explains, referencing a storied space co-founded by artists Carol Goodden and Gordon Matta-Clark. “I spent a long time looking at that, because I was trying to understand how we could create a modern version.”
Of course, most of the artists and studios in Soho are long gone, replaced by luxury chain stores and tourists who shuffle in and out of them with a faltering, studied cool. But Crofton says he wants Manuela to rekindle the neighborhood’s former artistic authenticity—or at the very least become a go-to place for the people who live and work nearby. Chef Sean Froedtert, a veteran of the cult favorite wine bar Buvette, will serve lunch as well as dinner to emphasize the local-go-to sensibility. “It’s a vote for the neighborhood,” Crofton says.
On the Menu
Once diners have wandered past Rottenberg’s psychedelic light fixture, they’ll pick up an ever-changing menu whose one constant is that produce dominates it; Froedtert is sourcing the majority of his ingredients from local farms. “It’s almost like we’re highlighting the growers and the vegetables on this menu, and the proteins are the side dishes,” Crofton says.
Dishes are prepared in a room-length, airy open kitchen with a view of the restaurant; its centerpiece is a giant wood-fire oven, for cooking everything from turnips to pork. (A prep station is in front of the oven. Diners can chronicle the proceedings from nearby tables.)
The traditionally structured dinner menu has appetizers, protein entrees, and a section of salads and vegetables. Among the dishes to order for the table are a starter of sesame bread with cultured butter and smoked trout roe and crudites with the now ubiquitous Mexican pumpkin seed dip, sikil pak. And, especially, superb cream biscuits, served warm so you smell them before they arrive; they’re made so flaky that they could double as puff pastry and are accompanied by a side of country ham and whipped butter made sweet with the addition of Steen’s cane syrup.
Among vegetable dishes, there’s notably good, if not inexpensive, pan-fried oyster mushrooms, lightly coated with brown butter, with a sauce made from confit of leeks for $36.
The meat and fish menu includes skate wing with a sturdy cornmeal coating and half a farmers market chicken with white barbecue sauce and grilled lemon. At the top end, a 16-ounce ribeye with green peppercorns goes for $92. Among the excellent side dishes is slightly funky roasted cauliflower with date vinegar and almonds.
What’s to Drink
Wine director Lauren Hoey’s 250-bottle list has a range of price points. “When I go out, I go for wines that are delicious value, under $100,” she says. Accordingly, the selection in that range includes a 2023 Christophe Lepage white Burgundy for $65 and a 2020 St.-Émilion grand cru from Château Haut-Segottes for $90. There are, of course, higher-end options: Should someone wish to, they can splurge on a 2005 Château Mouton Rothschild for $1,650.
Like the food menu, the cocktail program highlights seasonal produce and ingredients that minimize waste. (A hidden amenity at Manuela is the Rocket, a massive commercial dehydrator and food composter that will process about 90% of the restaurant’s food waste.) Slated drinks include Pop Art, a mix of brandy, sparkling wine, cassis and orange zest, and Notorious, which blends Scotch, sherry and concord grapes. Its tailor made to sip this autumn, with a view of the crowded Soho streets outside.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.