Published September 07, 2011
Crown Heights
Supper Inside a UES Town House
Your mom’s a wonderful woman.
But lately, her home-cooked meals have been lacking in the dry-aged steak/celebrity clientele
department.
So we’ve found a solution.
It’s someone else’s house. A town house. And you have a standing invitation to dinner.
Welcome inside
Crown, a
restaurant-residence from John
DeLucie (the Waverly Inn/the Lion) with comfort-food suppers and the occasional dining Beatle, opening
Friday and taking reservations now.
Functioning as both clubhouse to the rich and famished and exclamation point to your Metropolitan Museum art
date, the restaurant occupies the bottom two levels of a pre-prewar Madison Avenue apartment building. One
that’s seen its lobby transformed from a quaint sitting area into a 1920s-train-car-inspired dining
room.
Gone is the doorman. In his place: a welcoming hostess who’ll set you up with gimlets from the zinc-topped
bar and show you to a fireside, taupe-colored banquette for two. A cozy piece of real estate that, despite
its floor-to-ceiling garden-view windows, is still only the second-best seat in the house.
The most sought-after spot, well, is actually hidden behind a fake bookcase in the basement. Pull on the
right hardcover, and the entire shelf will swing away to reveal a secret panic room complete with a private
bar, a couch and a VIP table. Recent dinner occupants have included one Sir Paul McCartney.
And zero Ringo Starrs.
VITALS
Crown
24 E 81st St
(between Madison and 5th)
New York, NY 10028
646-559-4880