By Jim Lochner
New venues showcase New York City’s historic past and present, while others celebrate the city’s diversity with delicacies from Spain and Korea.
GAONURRI gaonnurinyc.com 1250 Broadway (212) 971-9045
The Wayfarer thewayfarernyc.com 101 West 57th Street (212) 691-0030
The Quin thequinhotel.com 101 West 57th Street (212) 245-7846
The High Line Hotel thehighlinehotel.com 180 10th Avenue (212) 929-3888
Located on the 39th penthouse floor of an office building on the edge of Koreatown, GAONURRI is the highest Korean restaurant in the world and the second highest restaurant in Manhattan, with stunning views to match. The 270-degree panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline, the East River, and New Jersey is a feast for the eyes. With the Empire State Building seemingly close enough to touch, GAONURRI, which means “the center of the world” in Korean, is appropriately named. The Sky Lounge offers an assortment of signature cocktails as well as a large wine selection that includes wines from Moravia, Italy, Sicily, France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, and Napa Valley. Chef Tae Goo Kang’s menu features a wide selection of seafood and barbecue options (each table is equipped with a grill), including traditional Korean favorites like bibimbap (mixed rice), bossam (braised pork belly), yukhoe (beef tartare), and haemul pajun (seafood pancake). For lunch, pick up a $20 bento-style bansang lunch box of galbi, vegetables, and soup. The dinner menu also offers a threecourse prix fixe for $29 and a $95 six-course tasting menu. If the food wasn’t enough, the view alone is worth the trip.
At the base of the Quin Hotel (see right) sits The Wayfarer, a bi-level American seafood grill. The restaurant’s raw bar features delectable goodies like Alaskan king crab legs in lemon cream fraiche and Jonah crab claw with herb remoulade. Braised Berkshire bacon glazed with maple sugar and Xerxes vinegar makes for a yummy starter. Reel in executive chef Jason Hall’s signature dishes like Shellfish Cioppino, a combination of Alaskan king crab, lobster, shrimp, and clams immersed in spicy tomato broth. Or if beef is more your style, rope in the Rib Eye, a 28-day dry-aged prime cut served with mushroom-rosemary ragu. The brunch menu includes mouthwatering selections such as The Walrus, a three-egg omelette with peekytoe crab, snow peas, shallots, mushrooms, and parsley, or the roast Amish chicken (also available for dinner), with confit garlic, rosemary, and goat cheese crème. Designed by Meyer Davis Studio, the 130-seat dining room evokes the memory of a gentleman’s social club, while the second-floor lounge provides a more casual dining experience with a 20-foot bar and three private dining rooms that can accommodate parties from 12 to 24 guests individually or 72 guests combined.
On the foundation of the old Buckingham Hotel—once home to cultural icons like Paderewski, Chagall, Georgia O’Keeffe, soprano Renata Tebaldi, and Oscar-winning composer Dimitri Tiomkin—the Quin boasts 208 luxury rooms located at the heart of the city’s cultural district. Architecture and design firm Perkins Eastman have re-envisioned the rooms with luxury in mind, using a mixture of lacquered wood and sustainable materials. Each room is equipped with luxury king-size DUXIANA beds, SFERRA bedding, Fresh products, and Nespresso machines. Other amenities include an Apple-equipped drawing room and a 24-hour Technogym fitness center. With world-class neighbors like Carnegie Hall and MoMA, the Quin also aims to capitalize on the area’s cultural ambience, with an Artist-in-Residence Program, artists salons, a fine art collection and a 15-foot video art wall in the lobby. Curated by DK Johnston of The Arts Fund, the Quin Arts program offers a series of events, exhibitions, salons, lectures, film premieres, book debuts, musical performances, and artist receptions.
Just steps away from The High Line park, the eponymous hotel is housed inside the Gothic red brick former dorms of the General Theological Seminary, which dates from 1836. The hotel’s 60 rooms feature hardwood floors, oversized beds, and one-of-a-kind locally sourced furniture. Designers Roman and Williams give the interiors of each room a unique flair, combining vintage, surplus, and salvaged elements. You may find a nonworking fireplace, antique oriental rugs, a rotary dial phone, a pink leather club chair, or even an antique embosser on the desk, for guests who want to kick it old skool and take pen to paper. All of the rooms feature large windows that look out on The High Line park or at the enclosed, Parisian-inspired private garden. Though the hotel doesn’t have a restaurant (there are plenty in the neighborhood), you can partake of the well-stocked minibar or sip espresso from the Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea baristas in the lobby. A particularly nice touch, especially for international travelers, is complimentary phone calls to anywhere in the world. Guests looking for “green” travel should be pleased with the hotel’s geothermal heating and paperless iPad check-in.
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