Danny Meyer Moves Uptown with Bentel & Bentel

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Under construction right now at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) are new restaurants -- "The Modern," "The Bar Room," "Cafe 2," "Terrace 5" and a cafe for staff -- creations of conceptualizer Danny Meyer of the Union Square Hospitality Group and the design team of Peter Bentel, Paul Bentel, Susan Nagle, and Carol Rusche of Bentel & Bentel Architects. Glenn D. Lowry, MOMA's director, told The New York Times, "The better the food, the more intense the museum experience." MOMA had pioneered fine dining at museums with Sette Moma in 1993, but the restaurant had terrible public access after museum hours. This area of business has been dominated for years in New York by Restaurant Associates, with a long list of high-end museum restaurants often if not always reserved for ticket holders or patrons. In keeping with his new Restaurant Associates partners, Joachim Splichal has moved his flagship Patina restaurant from its stand-alone site into the new Walt Disney Concert Hall on Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles. (See previous entry "Nick Valenti: Super Chef Master?.") Now, MOMA is challenging this model, with public access to restaurants -- and ownership for the restaurant conceptualizer, Danny Meyer, who is paying one third of the build-out costs for restaurants and kitchens and will split profits with MOMA for 20 years, reports The New York Times. Like many a restaurateur and chef before him, Danny Meyer has publicly stated (and has told me in interviews) that he would never expand outside his core area -- in his case, the Union Square area in Lower Manhattan where all his restaurants to date are located. (See previous entry " fter the Hurricane, Norman Van Aken Breezes Gently In.") MOMA was certainly an offer hard to refuse. The $10 million cost has been cut already by $1 million, thanks to a donation by the Danish Consulate General in New York to showcase Danish designers' wares in the museum and restaurants, including stainless steel cutlery and chairs by Arne Jacobsen. To help underwrite the museum's cost, adult admission price is rising from $12 to $20. David Swinghamer, one of Danny's partners, is overseeing the project (and is prominently cited in Super Chef, pp. 150-151, 157, 168, 169, 190). Bentel & Bentel is working with MOMA's new architect, Yoshio Taniguchi, as well as the original designs of architects Philip L. Goodwin and Edward Durell Stone and the further work of Philip Johnson. (For further description by The New York Times, click here.) Previous articles: Tom Colicchio: a-Kickin' and a-Copin' --> back to superchefblog