Located in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), The Modern bar room offers guests a casual, cosmopolitan experience. The menu features 30 savory small plates and desserts by pastry chef Marc Aumont. In addition to the bar room, visitors can also opt for a more refined experience in the main dining room.
The vibe: Very pretty, airy, buzzy, mid-century modern with lots of straight lines and shiny surfaces; upper-crusty but chic.
The food: More casual than The Modern’s tasting menu program but still suitably tweezered. There’s bar snacks, including caviar hot dogs (yes, that’s small hot dogs with caviar on top) but you can tuck into a full meal if you’re in the market. The Monkfish was a standout: roasted to perfection, delicate and flavorful on a bed of chickpeas in an herbaceous sauce; as opposed to the oft-cited fried chicken, it’s a dish you won’t find elsewhere.
The drink: As you might imagine, the wine list is extensive. But if you’re not a wine person, there’s also a number of beers to pick from. The cocktailing is, in a word, expert. Modern classics sing, but you should really dip a toe or two or ten into their house cocktails, which are out-of-the-box inventive. The Dummeyer–a rye Manhattan that evokes an everything bagel with Kümmel, onion brine, and sesame scallion oil.
Time Out tip: A full meal (starter, main, dessert + drinks + wine) makes less sense here than it does at The Modern, where for about the same price you’ll be privy to Chef Thomas Allan’s full creative powers. To that end, we suggest doing drinks and sharing some starters with a companion.