art and hunger

Congratulations to Chef Humm at Eleven Madison Park

Executive Chef Daniel Humm, who heads Eleven Madison Park, was rightly awarded 4 stars today by New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni. Chef Humm is the epitome of the artful chef with his extraordinary menus, colorful amuse-bouches and flawless presentation of food. As you can see in these stunning images of Eleven Madison Park's food from their restaurant website, Chef Humm is an absolute artist in the kitchen in the literal sense, so we thought it fitting to write a tribute to his success here.

We had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Humm once at a party, and were struck by what a humble, pleasant person he is as well as a great chef. Bruni wrote a delightful description of Chef Humm’s culinary creativity, which you can read for yourself.  

In addition, Eleven Madison Park smartly leverages high-end, sophisticated graphic design in its favor. The simple, modern logo representing the seasonality of their menu is one of our favorite restaurant logos in New York. Eleven Madison Park’s brochures are printed on smooth, luxurious paper and their food photographer is one of the best. Congratulations to all involved in making this restaurant such a unique place.

Eleven Madison Park

11 Madison Ave  New York, NY 10010  (212) 889-0918

I Sodi- A Restaurant Built by Artists

I Sodi - 105 Christopher Street at Bleecker

We had read much about I Sodi, a comfortable, unpretentious Italian restaurant recently opened in the West Village. We were excited to try this place because the minimal, toned-down decor implies a very sophisticated design sense behind the business. The design eyes behind it all include Rita Sodi and interior/furniture design firm Daskam & Dworkis, owned by Tomas Daskam and Josh Dworkis. Everything from the quiet facade to the interior's white marble bar to the minimal white menus with clean typography were exactly what we hoped for. Aesthetically, the details were executed with just the right amount of restraint, simplicity and freshness.

All the wood used to design the interior is reclaimed, quality Chestnut from a barn in South Carolina, combined with rare, hard-to-find materials. To quote Josh Dworkis's description of the project, "There is not a single piece of plywood in that restaurant."

Glass artist Michiko Sakano created the hand-blown light fixtures and Greenwich Letterpress created the menus with restrained, elegant typography. There are too many other artists involved to list but we congratulate all of them on their work.

In addition to great restaurant design, we recommend I Sodi for the authentic Italian food based on Rita Sodi's family recipes. The menu format follows the authentic Italian way of serving food in smaller portions in this order: antipasto, primo, secondo and contorni. This is both a healthier way to eat Italian than what Americans normally have access to in America, and more fun because you get to experiment tasting a number of different flavors.

Interior images courtesy of Daskam & Dworkis:

Au Revoir La Goulue

La Goulue - Madison Avenue at 65th

La Goulue, the first and best of the Faux-French restaurants in New York will be closing after 36 years in business. La Goulue was the originator of the Faux-French genre, and still remains the most believable of all of them. It is the only restaurant in Manhattan where you can not only practice your French, but are kind of expected to. It is a restaurant where we love being served dishes like this:

The design of the restaurant (which we define as everything from the logo to the plates themselves) appropriately recalls a typical Parisian brasserie. The white tablecloths covered in paper always have a refreshing crispness. Everything in the restaurant speaks of old world Paris: the green menu and logo, the plates, the silverware, the old wood bistro chairs, and even the yellow bathrooms with white tile floors.

This is how Faux-French should be done. La Goulue will be missed!