Celebrities repeatedly sip and schmooze inside the private nooks and crannies of New York Metropolis’s dreamy restaurant the Golden Swan.
Proprietor Matthew Abramcyk and customary supervisor Marquis James took Net web page Six on an distinctive tour of the fashionable spot tucked contained within the historic two-story West Village townhouse, the place notable regulars embrace Helena Christensen and Henrik Lundqvist.
“It’s practically like a Woody Allen sort of physique of New York,” Abramcyk, the restaurateur behind Tribeca’s Smith & Mills and Tiny’s & the Bar Upstairs, acknowledged of the hotspot’s ambiance.
“You merely have these conversations that, , relate to common points in settings which may be form of rarefied by their New York-ish-ness, which I imagine we’ve truly tried to do proper right here with some construction and menu and staff.”
Initially established in Greenwich Village all through the flip of the nineteenth century, the Golden Swan was frequented by artists and thieves alike, along with Hudson Dusters gang member Thomas Wallace. In 2023, a few years after the watering hole was knocked all the best way all the way down to make method for the West 4th Street subway station, Abramcyk re-opened the storied establishment inside the setting up as quickly as home to the shuttered Seen Pig.
The reimagined eatery’s lower-level bistro-style home, sentimentally named after Wallace, has been the backdrop for lots of of Christensen’s cocktail-infused women’ nights with fellow fashions like Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Kaia Gerber.
The modern jet-black picket bar, illuminated by a inexperienced brick wall backing, encapsulates a Gatsby-era glamour infused with an old-money timelessness.
We’re knowledgeable the bartenders — recognized for his or her show-stopping rosemary-smoked quaint cocktail — stirred up fairly just a few extra-dirty martinis for Lorde and a pal one unfettered evening, whereas Crawford and her gaggle of catwalkers sipped on the eatery’s specific Golden Swan martinis. Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and his partner, Adelle Lutz, moreover cherished glasses of wine whereas seated on studded stools.
Propped beside the bar is a portrait of the boxer Gene Tunney painted by Interpol’s lead singer, Paul Banks.
“That’s an unimaginable painting. Of us come proper right here every evening time and admire it,” Abramcyk, a longtime buddy to Banks, acknowledged.
An extension of the first bar area, dubbed the Rear Wallace Room, is curtained off for VIP buddies in the hunt for a delicious meal with none prying eyes. Behind the velvet drapes, Sam Smith dined beneath the radar, Bradley Cooper ordered numerous mocktails and Jude Regulation teamed up with Jason Bateman for a boys’ evening time.
Italian architect and designer Carlo Scarpa impressed the marble Moroccan tile flooring, and hanging on the wall is a exact duplicate of Charles Demuth’s “The Golden Swan” painting, which as quickly as hung inside the distinctive saloon.
“I like this room on account of it relays the an identical sort of bar design that we now have in our important bar room, nevertheless it’s sort of like a ‘Peaky Blinders’ small room off the side of the bar,” Abramcyk acknowledged.
Off the Rear Wallace Room is an unassuming door utilized by celebrities as a secret entrance to thwart followers and paparazzi. The door, marked with a “No Customer Entry” sign, leads to a grungy hallway with stairs to the first consuming room along with an escape path to the side highway.
Cooper and Jake Gyllenhaal are only some notables to utilize the important thing once more door as an evasive maneuver.
The upstairs important consuming room — accessible from every the important thing staircase and the doorway flight of stairs — has mirror-lined partitions and big house home windows allowing for pure mild to stream in all through the day and charming views of downtown to be admired at evening time.
“We’ve obtained most likely essentially the most cozy attainable setting for a dinner,” Abramcyk acknowledged of the consuming room. “We’ve obtained a lovely room with every kind of design accouterment meant to make the lighting and coloration and ambiance in proper right here actually really feel akin to you’re in a glowing — [a] snow globe sort of a very really feel.
“The rationale we’re known as the Golden Swan is because of the golden mild that’s obtainable in at sunset, correct off the water proper right here,” he continued, referring to the Hudson River. “It’s most likely essentially the most beautiful consuming experiences on the earth.”
The intimate 40-seat home was famously the setting of Shaun White’s shock proposal to Nina Dobrev in October 2024.
“For the engagement, we cleared out the entire tables. Sean put up a large arch of flowers … roses lined the flooring, [we] candle-lit all the home,” Abramcyk acknowledged. “They cherished it.”
James added that the proposal was “very intimate [and] very private.”
Whereas each candlelit desk presents a snug however stylish sanctuary, Desk 76 might be essentially the most sought-after setup and solely reserved for the restaurant’s VIP clientele.
“Numerous fabulous of us have dined proper right here at Desk 76,” Abramcyk acknowledged. “A number of individuals request the desk, nevertheless it’s merely not accessible [to everyone]. We’ve obtained various VIP requests for the desk, and we truly reserve it, and we keep it to a extreme regular for all of our VIPs.”
Kate Hudson was as quickly as seated at Desk 76 collectively along with her mom, Goldie Hawn, and the “First Wives Membership” star’s longtime companion, Kurt Russell. We hear the group ate the eatery’s well-known Dover sole dish, which is prepared with a meunière sauce and capers.
Besties Sarah Jessica Parker and Andy Cohen moreover cherished an evening out on the town whereas seated at Desk 76.
“These two personalities, as soon as they’re collectively, it’s merely laughing all evening time, jokes all evening time,” James acknowledged.
We’re knowledgeable Naomi Watts, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Lawrence, Glenn Shut and Meg Ryan have all graced the coveted gross sales area and indulged in authorities chef Doug Brixton’s eponymous burger with balsamic onions and Gruyère cheese on a ache au lait bun served with duck fat fries or his sticky toffee pudding with a side of crème fraîche ice cream topped with a cocoa feuilletine crumble.
Off the first consuming room is a semi-private alcove frequented by Naomi Campbell and Blake Energetic.
“[Stars] like consuming proper right here on account of it’s a semi-private actually really feel,” James outlined. “You’re nonetheless inside the restaurant, you’re nonetheless inside the mix, nevertheless you even have the private entrance that they’ll profit from at their consolation to go in and out.”
Jill Biden was one among many elite shoppers to sit down inside the partly restricted area for a women’ dinner collectively along with her granddaughter Finnegan Biden.
“We see a bunch of Secret Service brokers pull up — they shut down the block. Jill Biden walks inside the entrance door,” James remembered. “[Secret Service agents] have been wanding all people who obtained right here in, doing security checks. And likewise we had security stationed in numerous elements of the restaurant as successfully for our safety.”
We hear the earlier first woman “made it a level” to dine amongst most of the people on account of she “wished to actually really feel [like] an on a regular basis purchaser” and “combine in and easily profit from the New York experience.”
A stone’s throw away is the ultra-private cosy hideaway known as the Swan Room. A black curtain conceals the room the place 15 of us could also be seated at enticing pink velvet banquets that appear to melt into the gold-textured partitions.
“Like good New York restaurant individuals, we bought a $200 roll of swan wallpaper on Amazon, and our good buddy Kevin McCormick painted this beautiful room over the wallpaper,” Abramcyk shared. “It has lots patina, lots texture and depth. It’s the right place for an intimate dinner for just a few of us.”
Contained within the Swan Room, we’re knowledgeable Suki Waterhouse threw Robert Pattinson a birthday celebration, and Jane Fonda shared a meal with Sally Self-discipline.
David and Victoria Beckham moreover used the mini oasis as a spot of reprieve whereas throwing a trip event within the major consuming room for her garments agency. When paparazzi flooded the streets to grab their exit, James obtained right here to the rescue and drove them home himself.
“Victoria and David Beckham have been wrapping up their evening time. It was time for them to depart. Sadly, they generated various paparazzi and curiosity open air,” James recalled. “So I escorted them by the use of the once more entrance, by the use of the private entrance into my car.”
James acknowledged he drove the pair to their New York residence whereas their personal chauffeur steered their car within the fallacious approach to thwart the shutterbugs.
“Escape strategies shouldn’t an extreme quantity of for the Golden Swan to take care of,” Abramcyk added.
