At Oberon, Julia Sherman (a.k.a. Salad for President), who is known for her vegetable-forward cooking, will be steering the culinary efforts as co-executive chef alongside Ali Ghriskey. And it hits all these notes: culture, naturally, with the art; climate with the sustainability of the cork build (silver-leafed and cork exterior walls and interior domes and cork dining room banquettes) they made in collaboration with OMA; and, because it’s a museum, a built-in community. “As opposed to having to find a community, it already exists,” says Rich. “In a way that makes it easier, but you also really have to get it right because if you’re rejected by the community that you’re there to serve, what are you doing?”
Courting a community was also top of mind for Robin Standefer, co-founder (with her husband Stephen Alesch) of Roman and Williams, the firm tapped to design Marcel. To do so, they resurrected a restaurant (Ignacio Mattos’s Flora Bar was the most recent resident) in the Breuer building, the paragon of Brutalism on the Upper East Side that Sotheby’s now calls home. For Standefer, a lifelong New Yorker, the project felt personal. “I’ve been coming to this building since I was a small child,” she says. “Museums in New York really shaped my cultural perspective in a deep way.” So did restaurants like the Four Seasons (the original one, not its replacement), Windows on the World, Tavern on the Green, and the Rainbow Room.
Photo: Rich Stapleton
What excited Standefer about the project wasn’t just having an architectural wonder as her playground, but the opportunity to merge art, culture, and food—an intersection that has always interested her. The restaurant’s name, Marcel, is not the only nod to the building’s legendary Bauhaus designer. “To show the ultimate respect to the building, we had to respond with something very strong and clearly defined,” says Standefer.
Marcel’s design, with its teak and walnut bronze and cinnamon velvet interiors, exudes glamour and warmth; the room feels fresh, but also immediately timeless. Breuer’s influence is also on the menu, from the beautiful typeface to some of the dishes chef-partner Marie Aude-Rose is serving out of the buzzing open kitchen, like chicken paprikash following his mother’s recipe. The daytime patisserie counter (where you can pick up a coffee and a madeleine to go) and the inviting space are meant to beckon repeat visitors, and so is the Voulez-vous? section of the menu, where diners can choose a piece of meat or fish, grilled, steamed, or baked. “It’s for someone who wants to come eat here multiple times a week, which is a very Upper East Side thing to do,” says Standefer.
