“…For me, dinner at a fine restaurant was the ultimate luxury. It was the very height of civilization. For what was civilization but the intellect’s ascendancy out of the doldrums of necessity (shelter, sustenance and survival) into the ether of the finely superfluous (poetry, handbags and haute cuisine)? So removed from daily life was the whole experience that when all was rotten to the core, a fine dinner could revive the spirits. If and when I had twenty dollars left to my name, I was going to invest it right here in an elegant hour that couldn’t be hocked.”

—From Rules of Civility by Amor Towels

CHEF D’OEUVRES

Article by Cassandra Csencsitz
Culinary photos by @foodstorymedialtd

2023 was a year of slow, steady regrowth. Of hard-won highlights. Of culinary and creative endeavors designed to provide a taste of New York at its best.

While we at Gotham are using our long-loved address to offer our customers even more than a meal, at the heart of every restaurant is its kitchen. A quick Google or glance at our OpenTable reviews reveals a menu whose bar is not simply passing muster. The pursuit of excellence, the primacy of integrity, the fact of respect for ingredients and customers, these virtues define the truth of New Gotham Cuisine.

As 2024 begins, we thank the partners and press who sung our kitchen’s praises, the customers who acknowledge the heartfelt skill of our service, and those of artistic bends who appreciate our desire to participate in New York’s singular cultural scene.

All That Jazz

Live music was a highlight of our year as Gotham Jazz grew into Gotham Performances with a series of dedicated 9pm concerts that elevated our music focus from background to main event.

Twice-weekly appearances by Dr. Darrell Smith and his Dal Segño Trio continued while our collaboration with Kristen Lee Sergeant and Ted Nash presented Sergeant backed by bass, keys, and Nash on sax as special guest. Under Sergeant’s seasonal vision, three performances—“Swing into Spring,” “Autumn in New York,” and “Black Magic”—each a theatrically devised show unto itself, offered a mix of Sergeant originals and songbook staples. Our partnership was applauded by Broadway World.

This marriage of true minds culminated in Gotham’s first Big Band event to launch the pair’s album Holidays. Along the way we got the attention of WBGO and were honored to have their support, including this interview by Doug Doyle with the couples behind the affair.

A Gotham first, the event showcased our space as chamber hall par excellence with the 17 musicians and a full house enjoying our prime acoustics. Stay tuned as we seek to utilize our room when closed on Sundays throughout 2024!

Changes of Art

Each time a work must leave our walls* it is a bitter-sweet event. In May newly knighted Sir Christopher Le Brun dined with us before reclaiming his towering “Just” and “Speaking Likeness.” Shortly thereafter our dear friend Robert Peterson brought home his “Through It All, Love Yourself.” These works had defined Gotham’s first year, and it was hard to picture our room without them.

But as is always the case with change, these voids created opportunities for our curator Emily Santangelo to fill with vibrant new life. We are thrilled with her choices—Rafael Baron’s “Iguacuanos,” Ali Smith’s “Landslide,” and Demit Omphroy’s “Crown.” Each of these artists is possessed of a remarkable personal story that we will share with you in the coming year (hopefully with the artists themselves!), and each work is for sale via the Gotham Gallery Catalogue.

Also for sale and benefiting our partner the Coalition for Rainforest Nations are the works in our Giving Gallery, a capsule collection sponsored by Gemini G.E.L. at Join Moisant Weyl that includes four significant American prints, 25% from the sale of which will go to CfRN. Support nature through art while making a worthy contribution to your own collection.

A special mention must go to our own Ed Ruscha, 2016’s “Unstructured Merriment,” which immortalizes the home of Stanley & Elyse Grinstein, the late co-founders of Gemini G.E.L., where he and other famous names made merry with abandon. Rusha’s current exhibit at MOMA displays the artist’s genius over six decades. With his signature marriage of wordplay and visual art, he too defies categorization like all our favorite creators. Don’t miss the days left to see this brain-tickling exhibit through January 13!

*The works above are pictured in order of mention from left to right

Dinner Theatre

Last year Off Broadway’s Classic Stage Company served up three musicals that we were proud to promote. Person of Interest revived Terrence McNally’s Oscar Wilde-inspired tale, a timely post-pandemic homage to live theatre itself. This was followed by black odyssey, a wildly entertaining retelling of Odysseus’ famous adventures set in Harlem. Homer’s re-created epic provided the opportunity to highlight our city’s uptown-downtown connection, encouraging New Yorkers to move between Harlem and Gotham—to, as Duck Ellington sings, “Take the ‘A’ Train.” This partnership culminated in our hosting a closing party and Gotham Jazz takeover by the brilliant cast.

Most recently we turned our sights to the first performance of I Can Get It For You Wholesale since 1961 and which should no longer only be known for making Barbara Streisand famous. Broadway should be so lucky to see any of these shows transfer to its theatres. Founded in 1967, Classic Stage is doing an extraordinary job mining theatre history and the contemporary playscape to bring us works that fit the bill of resonant classics for today.

Speaking of Broadway, thanks to Gotham lighting contributor Andrea Lauer, who dressed Melissa Etheridge for My Window, we were able to test drive “Gotham to Broadway,” offering reduced tickets and pre-theatre dining perks. Our hope for this initiative is draw attention to how quickly you can reach Broadway from Union Square. Stay tuned for more Broadway partnerships to come!

Gotham Book Events: A Novel Idea

Kathleen Squires’ exquisite piece on our Library was just the nod we needed to prioritize our dream of curating Saturday book events “Between Meals.” From 3:30-4:30, in the quiet hour before dinner service, we began hosting author readings and remarks followed by cocktails and canapés at the bar.

There was no better way to kick things off before summer than with longtime playwright friend Jonathan Leaf, whose recent expansion into the novel genre echoes our own penchant for self-recreation. Leaf’s following came out in numbers and enjoyed a conversation between the author and Bret Csencsitz.

In September our customer and friend in NYU’s Dr. Philip Mitsis brought us a thrilling title, Oxford’s The Dangerous Life and Ideas of Diogenes the Cynic. We held a conversation with author John Manuel Roubineau and The New School’s Gwenda-lin Grewal on this snappy new book about Diogenes, the self-described “citizen of the world” who invented the word “cosmopolitan” as we know it today.

In October Jonathan Leaf returned to guide us through a conversation around the recently departed Milan Kundera’s classic Art of the Novel and Joseph Epstein’s new Encounter Books title The Novel, Who Needs It. Our discussion of the novel related to many pressing modern concerns, from disappearing attention spans and book banning to the value of a liberal education.

Last but not least, thanks to Daniel Mendelsohn who introduced me to Benjamin Taylor over our love of Willa Cather, in November we planned an event for Taylor’s new biography, Chasing Bright Medusas, that is now topping the year’s nonfiction lists. Epstein, also an ardent Cather fan, brings our season’s novel conversation full circle with this recent review.

If the death of the novel has been threatened for the better part of the last century, a look at enduring and rediscovered classics alongside new candidates for posterity like Amor Towles, the truer narrative seems to be, “The Novel, We Can’t Live Without It.” If life is stranger than fiction, for me it’s equally true that fiction offers our greatest education on life.

What’s Next?

As Gotham prepares to turn 40, the New Year will hold a number of traditions, surprises, and more Gotham firsts. On the program so far are:

—January 6: The first of many planned AstroTwins events
—January 16-February 2: Winter Restaurant Week!
—January 17-31: A Gershwin series by the Dal Segño Trio and friends
—February 13: Our first Galentine’s extravaganza
—February 8-March 24: Dinner-theatre collaboration with Classic Stage Company for Fiasco Theater’s Pericles
—March 16: Fashion | Sense Gotham Book Event with author Gwen Grewal and Valerie Steele
—May 26: Kristen Lee Sergeant returns with her newest project inspired by the art of Édouard Manet

If 2023 was a story of like-minded opportunities born of meaningful connections, we have many such irons in the fire for our 40th Anniversary celebration from mid-March to mid-April. We hope you’ll join us for a spread of delicious adventures this year, and that you’ll share yours with us!