Abe & Arthur’s, NYC

It’s loud, it’s young and it is two floors of opulent New York City, circa 1940s. The design is a head-on collision of über-slick (leather chairs and a gorgeous varnished zinc bar) with contrived-street (scrims with images of graffiti and cobblestones). It really is sensory overload, especially the too-good-to-be-true raw bar offerings, but this massive shiny Meatpacking player is also the most fun we’ve ever had in a restaurant.

This all may sound like a club, but Abe & Arthur’s, as befits its Meatpacking District locale (the restaurant takes over the vacated Lotus space on West 14th Street), is an American eatery to the core. The owners – Michael Hirtenstein and Mark Birnbaum, the team behind Tenjune – want Abe & Arthur’s to be the next power-dining, steak-and-three-martinis big thing, but the verdict is out on that one; Chef Franklin Becker’s fare — a brasserie-style menu of tried-and true plates, like burgers, sweet-and-sour meatballs, Kobe sliders, beef carpaccio, salmon tartar — is nothing terribly ambitious, and the crowd thus far has been wildly erratic. But the restaurant, which is named after the owners? grandfathers, is truly gorgeous.

The 10,000-square-foot Abe & Arthur’s takes up two levels of a three floor building (the attached club Simyone is on the lowest level). With iCrave behind the design, Abe & Arthur’s has been crafted to be your “to be seen” type of a room — a la Lotus — with rich detailing, like tanned leathers, a varnished zinc bar, polished wood floors and layers of graffiti-like scrims dividing the areas, all offering multiple levels of voyeuristic pleasure.

In this modern dining room, everyone sees everyone, which suits celeb-gawkers just fine. Like Lotus before, Abe & Arthur’s will surely pack them in. But, by turning a space that was a supperclub into a restaurant, Abe & Arthur’s, although gorgeous, will indeed have a short life-span. Check it out while it’s young, hot and the vibe amped to the max.

Address: 409 W 14th St, New York, NY 10014
Contact: 646-289-3930
Cuisine: Contemporary
Area: Meatpacking District
Venue: Restaurant, Lounge, Nightclub
Hours: Abe & Arthur’s is slated to open October 7th
2009
Price Range:
Payment: Master Card, Visa, American Express

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