Flora Bar

The menu was born from a ventilation issue. When taking over the basement level of the Upper East Side’s Met Breuer museum, restaurateur Thomas Carter and chef Ignacio Mattos—the pedigreed duo behind Obama-fave Estela and its Soho sequel Café Altro Paradiso—faced some heating constraints, meaning many of the seafood dishes coming out of Mattos’s kitchen are of the raw sort: scallop with plum and onion, Spanish tuna tartare with toasted flax seeds, and snow crab with yuzu kosho mayonnaise. There are, however, cooked items as well, from lobster ravioli with greens to steak bearnaise with potatoes and chicory. Adjacent to the sleek 74-seat restaurant—sparsely decorated with midcentury-style banquettes, an expansive marble bar and large windows overlooking a private courtyard—is the team’s Flora Coffee, serving java, pastries (sesame pound cake) and to-go sandwiches (ham and butter) during daytime museum hours.