Inside The Eighty Six, a new jewel box restaurant that’s already celebrity-approved

With lavish interiors from Rockwell Group and a decadent menu, a historic New York boozer has been reborn in glittering fashion

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The Eighty Six Restaurant Review New York
(Image credit: Jason Varney for Rockwell Group)

The Corner Store in New York made social media waves and spurred frantic refreshes for online reservations even before Taylor Swift and Gigi Hadid were photographed leaving dinner. The team behind the A-list hotspot famed for caviar-topped lobster rolls and celeb sightings recently debuted a new concept that’s generating as much buzz for its seductive ambience as the gastronomy: The Eighty Six.

Located in the West Village, the new restaurant from Catch Hospitality is an intimate and indulgent steakhouse with rich roots. Pint-sized yet ultra-glam, The Eighty Six is a decadent destination for a romantic rendezvous, a special celebration, or an incentive for your Uptown friend to journey below 14th Street.

Wallpaper* dines at The Eighty Six, New York

The mood: Indulgent and glamorous with a warm, 1920s glow

The Eighty Six Restaurant Review New York

(Image credit: Jason Varney for Rockwell Group)

The Eighty Six occupies what was formerly Chumley’s, a storied West Village pub that opened during the Jazz Age and operated as a speakeasy throughout prohibition. Its history as a gathering place for luminaries (F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway were known to toss back a few rounds) inspired the evocative interiors.

‘We wanted to create a transformative experience; for it to feel like a New York vignette of the past that’s at home in the present – not just another dining room,’ says Shawn Sullivan, Partner at Rockwell Group.

To bring this vision to life, the New York–based studio behind the recently transformed W New York - Union Square looked to the 1920s, drawing on a palette of jewel-toned velvets, geometric patterns, lacquered wood and brass detailing, and found common language between the long, narrow floor plan of the space and that of vintage luxury train cars, leaning into the motif with crafted millwork, reflective surfaces and ‘a sense of linear procession.’

The Eighty Six Restaurant Review New York

(Image credit: Jason Varney for Rockwell Group)

The Eighty Six Restaurant Review New York

(Image credit: Jason Varney for Rockwell Group)

The walls and ceilings of the intimate space are accented with mirrors and antique fixtures that catch and scatter the light, creating a refractive glow where all the wheeling, dealing, and date-night romance unfolds. ‘Even the bespoke, hand-painted mirrored panels at the back bar emulate the feeling of looking out a train window,’ Sullivan says.

The food: timeless classics with a touch of showmanship

The Eighty Six Restaurant Review New York

(Image credit: Courtesy The Eighty Six)

The food – like the interiors – at The Eighty Six is a lesson in sumptuousness, tempered with the restraint of a true steward with a distinct point of view.

The timeless menu spotlights beef aged below the century-old bar and revivals of classic New York dishes. It’s yet another way of honouring the legacy of what Eugene Remm, partner, Catch Hospitality Group, calls ‘one of the most historic rooms in New York.’ The steak program is ‘a prime example of that commitment, with rare, bespoke selections that are cut, aged, and prepared in-house.’

The Eighty Six Restaurant Review New York

(Image credit: Courtesy The Eighty Six)

The quality of the ingredients is so superb that the restaurant doesn’t need to pull out all the gimmicks and made-for-Instagram tricks – though, there’s plenty of gastronomic whimsy and showmanship on the menu.

The deep-pocked crowd will appreciate exclusive cuts of grass-fed ‘vaca vieja’ wagyu and seasonal delicacies like stone crabs flown in from Florida, presented in a treasure box. A dapperly-dressed server will come by to shave fresh horseradish on your perfectly-chilled shrimp cocktail. The potato croquettes are filled with French onion dip and topped with caviar and mimolette cheese. The 86 Waldorf is a gluttonously gorgeous nod to the recently revamped, legendary Midtown East hotel with two types of bacon and a crushed hazelnut vinaigrette.

The Eighty Six Restaurant Review New York

(Image credit: Courtesy The Eighty Six)

The Eighty Six’s beverage program is equally exquisite – a fitting way to pay reverence to its past as a venerable boozer. The smoked martini is finished tableside with hyper-chilled distilled water poured over a frozen, smoked olive, forming an icicle that chills and dilutes the drink just right.

The Eighty Six is located at 86 Bedford St, New York, NY 10014, USA

Lindsay Cohn

Lindsay Cohn is a freelance travel journalist with nearly a decade of experience writing, editing and jet setting, and bylines in Travel + Leisure, Robb Report, Galerie, The Zoe Report, InsideHook, Hotels Above Par, and more. In between trips to sunny islands, cobbled villages and bustling cities, you can find her in Philadelphia with her husband and two young sons.