John McDonald, who launched his first hit, MercBar, in Soho in 1993, is opening Smyth Tavern this week in Tribeca.
Matthew McDermott
A veteran restaurateur behind a few of the metropolis’s trendiest eateries is betting that diners are nonetheless prepared to dig deep into their wallets amid the financial belt-tightening.
John McDonald, who launched his first hit, MercBar, in Soho in 1993, is opening Smyth Tavern this week in Tribeca — his third new restaurant for the reason that 2020 COVID lockdown together with Hancock Road and Bar Tulix.
Other than MercBar, McDonald in 2004 opened Lure Fishbar — which now has outposts in Miami and Chicago — and co-founded Lever Home, Dos Caminos and Canteen. His different eating places embrace Bowery Meat Firm, Bistrot Leo, Butterfly and A60. MercBar shuttered in 2016.
All through his profession, McDonald has surfed town’s ups and downs — from early Nineteen Nineties crime waves and 9/11, to the 2008 recession and the pandemic.
“I've seen just a few main financial turndowns prior to now 20 years and I really feel like there may be at all times an urge for food for upscale — particularly when it isn’t fussy or treasured — and excessive atmospheric locations,” McDonald tells Aspect Dish. “This simply makes the problem and stress all of the extra intense.”
Smyth Tavern takes over the area as soon as held by chef Andrew Carmellini’s Little Park at 85 West Broadway contained in the Smyth Lodge throughout from the Chambers Road subway cease. It has 100 seats within the 4,000-square-foot area and a non-public eating room with seating for 50.
The brand new area has been remodeled right into a mahogany-wood-and-red-leather, brasserie-style tavern after the resort, managed by Highgate, modified house owners through the pandemic. It pops with pictures from close by galleries, together with Peter Schlesinger pictures from 1969-1970 and a big SEX picture from Vivian Westwood’s authentic store.
“The brand new proprietor needed a change, and to convey again the gorgeous cocktail bar, which was referred to as the Night Bar,” McDonald tells Aspect Dish.
The “simple” menu presents “vary and flexibility,” in accordance with McDonald, with staples, like grilled fish, steak and pastas. It additionally options upscale fare equivalent to deviled eggs with caviar, steak tartare, heirloom tomato salad and a signature entree dish referred to as Mafaldine – a pasta with sea urchin, jumbo lump crab and Thai chili.
“The menu caters to individuals who reside or work within the neighborhood. It’s a fantastic place to sit down on the bar for a burger and glass of wine, nevertheless it additionally works in case you are all suited up with a enterprise consumer, ordering bottle of wine.”
McDonald shut down his eating places after the pandemic hit and hunkered down in Soho, the place he lives along with his household, to rethink his eatery empire.
Onerous occasions “at all times pressure me to focus and get extra inventive in an effort to survive,” McDonald mentioned.
As town started to reemerge from the pandemic lockdowns final yr, he opened Hancock Road, with chef Ryan Schmidtberger, at 257 Sixth Ave. — the area the place McDonald’s former restaurant, El Toro Blanco, had prospered for greater than a decade.
He labored along with his good friend Serge Becker to design Hancock Road, an American tavern-style eatery with white tablecloths and a “not fancy or prissy really feel,” he says.
McDonald then launched Bar Tulix, a seafood-centric Mexican hotspot, in partnership with Michelin-starred chef Justin Bazdarich 4 months in the past. He teamed with Meyer Davis to design the brand new bar in his former Burger & Barrel area at 25 W. Houston St.
“It was thrilling to launch one thing new. It bought my vitality again,” McDonald mentioned. “I used to be lucky as a result of I used to be already doing the modifications on the prevailing eating places they usually had been in good situation, however we nonetheless determined to go fairly deep and never simply do a refined change in decor, however actually make certain they didn't look or really feel the identical as their predecessors.”
Opening up Smyth Tavern has been “by far the strangest and most difficult of these different situations,” he says, because it’s outdoors his typical Soho haunts.
Jennifer Fisher, a jewellery designer who lives in Tribeca, says she will be able to’t wait to ebook a desk at McDonald’s newest enterprise.
“We'd like an attractive scorching, cool spot to come back after work for oysters and martinis. It’s a phenomenal bar area and restaurant to go on the finish of the day,” she mentioned, including that she hopes it is going to grow to be “the brand new ‘Cheers.'”
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