The John Dory Oyster Bar to Take The Ace on November 1

October 12, 2010 at 3:15 PM | by JetSetCD | Comments (0)

November 1. That's the date Ken Friedman, the man behind The Ace Hotel NYC's Michelin-starred The Breslin, hopes to have his second restaurant opened in the same building. We learned this while sitting in the audience at the TimesTalks series from the New York Times, where former NYT dining critic Frank Bruni sat down with a few restauranteurs to talk buzz, and Ken Friedman let some juicy details slip.

We've known since March that this second major Ace Hotel restaurant would be a remix of Friedman's failed fancy seafood spot, The John Dory, but he's had some time with his chef and business partner April Bloomfield to figure out how to give The John Dory a share of The Breslin's buzz once it's a hotel restaurant.

The new The John Dory - Oyster Bar will be more casual, a "restaurant disguised as a bar." From the outside, The John Dory Oyster Bar will look friendly, as it works to cultivate a scene with the energy of a bar and "every seat will be a barstool...with lumbar support." The space is being designed by Roman and Williams, the firm that designed the rest of the Ace Hotel and the Breslin restaurant.

The menu will focus on more casual items with easier to digest pricing than the first version of The John Dory. Will it succeed? Surely we predict better things for The Oyster Bar now that it's in a location already with tons of foot traffic, and we're loving the move to a more casual vibe.

The Ace and its neighborhood is not a place for $55, daintily plated entrees. It just isn't. Oyster shooters? Now we're talking.

[Photo: HotelChatter]

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