Commerce clause
Cafe Commerce, Nancy Silverton + Roscioli dinner, Spring Café Aspen, Le Petit Studio, The Locavore Variety Store, FOUND Paris & LDN, best bookstores with drinks, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Vibe check
One cornerstone of FOUND’s restaurant coverage is that we care as much, and sometimes more, about the experience as the food. What’s the space like? How’s the vibe? How does this restaurant make you feel?
And it was atmosphere I was considering last week, sitting with a friend at the reborn Cafe Commerce, which opened in January mid-block on Lexington Ave. on the Upper East Side.
Initially, I was unimpressed. The place felt small, too constrained. At the front of the restaurant is a loose assortment of tables where a picture window looks out to the street, with four- and two-person booths running down one side of the space and a bar down the other. Mirrored panels run the length of the wall. At the back of the restaurant, a few more booths, and then, quite suddenly, the kitchen. When we arrived on the early side last Thursday, the vibes were low-key — maybe even off-key.
But as the (really hot, and really good) basket of breads hit our table, the room started to fill up, and the music — an ’80s soundtrack — turned up. Soon, the bar was packed, and the tables followed, with a crowd ranging in age from 25 to 80. Cafe Commerce started to feel like the restaurant I remembered.
When it operated in the West Village from 2008 to 2015, this restaurant was known simply as Commerce. It occupied that iconic corner turn of the eponymous street where Rita Sodi and Jodi Williams now operate The Commerce Inn. In that time, a night at Commerce always felt like an event. “Joint jammed, hopping,” reads my note from one visit I paid in 2012.
Chef Harold Moore — who was there then, too — has made the transfer uptown, bringing his wide-ranging culinary inspiration to a menu that scans French. On our table this night: 20-herb salad with manchego, and a Moore classic, sweet potato tortelloni with hazelnuts, both satisfying starters. Moore has always had a steady hand with meat, and chicken schnitzel topped with cucumber salad demonstrated that he still does. (Two meat dishes for two — a 14oz New York strip, and roasted chicken with foie gras bread stuffing — read like they’d be apt examples of his handiwork as well.)
When Moore passed by our table, I asked him what he thought was the difference between his new uptown digs versus downtown. “Up here, people still order an appetizer and an entree,” he laughed. Dessert, too, in our case: Both the birthday cake and another favorite holdover from the West Village era, the coconut cake, arrived towering over our table.
By then, the volume in the restaurant had risen to a crescendo, the din of the crowd signaling its approval of this new, old restaurant. As our last plates were cleared, my friend remarked: “It’s 7pm, but it feels like 11.” Indeed it did — and uptown, no less. How did Cafe Commerce make us feel? Very, very good. –Lockhart Steele
→ Cafe Commerce (Upper East Side) • 964 Lexington Ave • Tue-Fri 1145a-10p, Sat-Sun 5-10p • Reserve.
RESTAURANTS • The Ticket
Nancy Silverton x Roscioli NYC • dinner and wine pairing from LA chef Nancy Silverton • Roscioli (Soho) • Sun 3/9 & Mon 3/10 @ 530p, $350 per
Slovenian Wine Class • two hours with beverage director featuring four Slovenian wines • Ruffian (East Village) • Weds 3/12 @ 6p, $50 per
Five Species Oyster Tasting • rare oyster tasting alongside small bites • Crave Fishbar (Upper West Side) • Tue 3/25 @ 7p, $125 per
NYC RESTAURANT LINKS: Last look at iconic Tribeca Grill • How Clemente Bar designed its five-course, $225 cocktail menu • Next era for Lucy’s starts today on Avenue A • Greenpoint’s Radio Bakery opens in Prospect Heights • Toronto’s celebrated BarChef opening outpost this month near Herald Square • Coming into focus: rooftop bar season • Trendwatch: Cocktails that feed you • How are restaurants splashing their VIPs?
WORK • Tuesday Routine
From Aspen with love
SABRINA RUDIN • founder/writer • Spring Café Aspen
Neighborhood you work and live in: Greenwich Village
It’s Tuesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
I’m making breakfast for my three boys, usually banana pancakes and green juice in my office (a.k.a. our home kitchen), then getting them out the door to school. After that, I’ll walk over to my other office (a.k.a. my restaurant, Spring Café Aspen) on the corner of Mercer and West 4th. It’s an organic, vegetarian café I founded in Aspen in 2013. I get there around 930a, greet our staff, and go over any major catering events or reservations for the day. I drink a Beet Mine and Matcha or Rose Latte with homemade nut milk, and say hi to any friends or regulars in the dining room.
What’s on the agenda for today?
I’m recording a podcast today and have to finish a draft of the Substack I’m launching this spring. There’s no greenmarket on Tuesdays, so I’ll make a grocery run to my favorite OG Village health food store, Lifethyme, and probably do a hot yoga class at Sui. I’ll have lunch at Spring with friends, probably a Greek Salad with tofu, and then it’s off to school pickup, and hockey practice with my eight-year-old. We all meet home for dinner around 630p and since it’s Tuesday, of course we’re having tacos.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Last night I had dinner with girlfriends at Atla in Noho and enjoyed a few rounds of brussels sprout tacos and hibiscus aqua frescas. This weekend, we’ll head to ABCv for family brunch — my kids love the dosa and almond flour pancakes. Saturday night is a fun night out at The Corner Store, where I fully indulge with the artichoke dip and coconut samoa sundae.
How about a little leisure or culture this week?
There’s an early Rangers game on Saturday at MSG, so we will take the two older boys, then we’ll stop by Space Club in Brooklyn, so they can run around out of the cold and get naturally colored blue and yellow smoothies and healthy snacks. And if there are waves, I’ll be in the Rockaways surfing.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
A surfboard, a 7-foot twin pin shaped by Charles Mencel.
What NYC store or service do you love to recommend?
My friend Nicole Berrie’s store Bonberi for the best grab-and-go salads, natural products and fun snacks, and a pilates private with Annie Venier of Le Petit Studio.
WORK • Launches
New FOUNDs
Over the last month, we’ve been running test issues for both FOUND Paris and FOUND LDN and both are looking good. We’re on track for Q1 launches in both markets.
As with the U.S. editions of FOUND, the central idea is to help locals get more out of their cities (and surrounds). But both Paris and London will be good and useful reads for savvy visitors, too. If you’re in either camp (or have friends who are), use these early-access links to get on the lists:
Meanwhile, we’ve assembled a talented team of contributors on the ground in each city. But there’s always room for more sharp writers (and non-writers with good taste). If you’d like to join the party, drop us a line at found@foundparis.com or found@foundldn.com.
WORK LINKS: Full-block Roosevelt Hotel may fetch $1B in development deal • Fish sculpture by Frank Gehry now hangs in 3 WTC lobby • Industrial developers turn away from NYC • Should we normalize DJing for bank CEOs? • Survey says one-third of couples don’t know how much their spouse makes • Have quirky meeting room names gone too far?
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shop
Variety pack
The Locavore Variety Store was opened last summer by small-business champion Caroline Weaver, who spent the pandemic trekking across all five boroughs on foot to create a digital directory of every independent business in New York City.
This shop is not like the other shoppy shops (where the same Instagram-friendly CPG darlings are found over and over again). Weaver stocks her store with a variety of goods made within 100 miles of NYC, from Queens-made body scrubs and Phoenicia Diner pancake mix to deadstock 1980s NYC souvenir trays and liquid soap expressly for cutting through pasta sauce.
There’s a feeling of community, too, in this Greenwich Village general store. Shoppers are greeted by an old-fashioned info board featuring dating classifieds, job listings for leather artisans, and the like. It’s not uncommon for local purveyors to walk into the shop and pitch their products, a shop employee tells me. Such was the case with peanut butter from Pierre’s Spicy, now a fixture on the shelves. Don’t leave without taking a free copy of the Locavore’s grocery store-style ad circular, as well as a loose pickle ($1 per) from the shop’s massive barrel. –Jessica Sulima
→ Shop: The Locavore Variety Store (Greenwich Village) • 434 6th Ave • Daily 10a-7p.
GOODS & SERVICES LINKS: Family club Cocoon opens UWS outpost • How Kingston NY became a fashion capital (of Hudson Valley) • Why are we so obsessed with blue? • The 50 greatest luxury cars of all time • Why do SUVs look like trucks again? • Why luxury fashion is turning off rich people • White jeans for men? ‘Jail.’
ASK FOUND
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After London and Paris, where should FOUND launch next?
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BARS • The Nines
Bookstores, with drinks
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of the best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@foundny.com.
Bibliotheque (Soho), literary lounge has globe-spinning wine list