Celebrities continuously sip and schmooze within the non-public nooks and crannies of New York Metropolis’s dreamy restaurant the Golden Swan.
Proprietor Matthew Abramcyk and common supervisor Marquis James took Web page Six on an unique tour of the stylish spot tucked contained in the historic two-story West Village townhouse, the place notable regulars embrace Helena Christensen and Henrik Lundqvist.
“It’s nearly like a Woody Allen type of body of New York,” Abramcyk, the restaurateur behind Tribeca’s Smith & Mills and Tiny’s & the Bar Upstairs, stated of the hotspot’s ambiance.
“You simply have these conversations that, , relate to regular issues in settings which can be kind of rarefied by their New York-ish-ness, which I believe we’ve actually tried to do right here with some structure and menu and employees.”
Initially established in Greenwich Village throughout the flip of the nineteenth century, the Golden Swan was frequented by artists and thieves alike, together with Hudson Dusters gang member Thomas Wallace. In 2023, many years after the watering gap was knocked all the way down to make manner for the West 4th Road subway station, Abramcyk re-opened the storied institution within the constructing as soon as house to the shuttered Noticed Pig.
The reimagined eatery’s lower-level bistro-style house, sentimentally named after Wallace, has been the backdrop for a lot of of Christensen’s cocktail-infused ladies’ nights with fellow fashions like Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Kaia Gerber.
The fashionable jet-black picket bar, illuminated by a inexperienced brick wall backing, encapsulates a Gatsby-era glamour infused with an old-money timelessness.
We’re informed the bartenders — identified for his or her show-stopping rosemary-smoked quaint cocktail — stirred up quite a few extra-dirty martinis for Lorde and a pal one unfettered night, whereas Crawford and her gaggle of catwalkers sipped on the eatery’s particular Golden Swan martinis. Speaking Heads frontman David Byrne and his spouse, Adelle Lutz, additionally loved 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 is an unimaginable portray. Folks come right here each night time and admire it,” Abramcyk, a longtime buddy to Banks, stated.
An extension of the primary bar space, dubbed the Rear Wallace Room, is curtained off for VIP friends in search of a scrumptious meal with none prying eyes. Behind the velvet drapes, Sam Smith dined below the radar, Bradley Cooper ordered a number of mocktails and Jude Regulation teamed up with Jason Bateman for a boys’ night time.
Italian architect and designer Carlo Scarpa impressed the marble Moroccan tile flooring, and hanging on the wall is a precise duplicate of Charles Demuth’s “The Golden Swan” portray, which as soon as hung within the unique saloon.
“I like this room as a result of it relays the identical type of bar design that we now have in our essential bar room, however it’s type of like a ‘Peaky Blinders’ small room off the facet of the bar,” Abramcyk stated.
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 Visitor Entry” signal, results in a grungy hallway with stairs to the primary eating room in addition to an escape path to the facet road.
Cooper and Jake Gyllenhaal are only a few notables to make use of the key again door as an evasive maneuver.
The upstairs essential eating room — accessible from each the key staircase and the entrance flight of stairs — has mirror-lined partitions and huge home windows permitting for pure gentle to stream in throughout the day and charming views of downtown to be admired at night time.
“We’ve got probably the most comfy attainable setting for a dinner,” Abramcyk stated of the eating room. “We’ve got an attractive room with all kinds of design accouterment meant to make the lighting and coloration and ambiance in right here really feel such as you’re in a glowing — [a] snow globe type of a really feel.
“The rationale we’re referred to as the Golden Swan is due to the golden gentle that is available in at sundown, proper off the water right here,” he continued, referring to the Hudson River. “It’s probably the most lovely eating experiences on the earth.”
The intimate 40-seat house was famously the setting of Shaun White’s shock proposal to Nina Dobrev in October 2024.
“For the engagement, we cleared out all of the tables. Sean put up a giant arch of flowers … roses lined the flooring, [we] candle-lit all the house,” Abramcyk stated. “They cherished it.”
James added that the proposal was “very intimate [and] very non-public.”
Whereas every candlelit desk presents a comfy but trendy sanctuary, Desk 76 is probably the most sought-after setup and solely reserved for the restaurant’s VIP clientele.
“Quite a lot of fabulous folks have dined right here at Desk 76,” Abramcyk stated. “Lots of people request the desk, however it’s simply not accessible [to everyone]. We’ve got quite a lot of VIP requests for the desk, and we actually reserve it, and we maintain it to a excessive normal for all of our VIPs.”
Kate Hudson was as soon as seated at Desk 76 together with her mother, 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 ready with a meunière sauce and capers.
Besties Sarah Jessica Parker and Andy Cohen additionally loved a night out in town whereas seated at Desk 76.
“These two personalities, once they’re collectively, it’s simply laughing all night time, jokes all night time,” James stated.
We’re informed Naomi Watts, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Lawrence, Glenn Shut and Meg Ryan have all graced the coveted sales space and indulged in government chef Doug Brixton’s eponymous burger with balsamic onions and Gruyère cheese on a ache au lait bun served with duck fats fries or his sticky toffee pudding with a facet of crème fraîche ice cream topped with a cocoa feuilletine crumble.
Off the primary eating room is a semi-private alcove frequented by Naomi Campbell and Blake Full of life.
“[Stars] like eating right here as a result of it’s a semi-private really feel,” James defined. “You’re nonetheless within the restaurant, you’re nonetheless within the combine, however you even have the non-public entrance that they’ll make the most of at their comfort to go out and in.”
Jill Biden was one of many elite clients to take a seat within the partly restricted space for a girls’ dinner together with her granddaughter Finnegan Biden.
“We see a bunch of Secret Service brokers pull up — they shut down the block. Jill Biden walks within the entrance door,” James remembered. “[Secret Service agents] have been wanding everybody who got here in, doing safety checks. And likewise we had safety stationed in a number of components of the restaurant as effectively for our security.”
We hear the previous first girl “made it a degree” to dine amongst the general public as a result of she “wished to really feel [like] an everyday buyer” and “mix in and simply benefit from the New York expertise.”
A stone’s throw away is the ultra-private cosy hideaway referred to as the Swan Room. A black curtain conceals the room the place 15 folks may be seated at attractive pink velvet banquets that seem to soften into the gold-textured partitions.
“Like good New York restaurant people, we purchased a $200 roll of swan wallpaper on Amazon, and our good buddy Kevin McCormick painted this lovely room over the wallpaper,” Abramcyk shared. “It has a lot patina, a lot texture and depth. It’s the proper place for an intimate dinner for a few folks.”
Contained in the Swan Room, we’re informed Suki Waterhouse threw Robert Pattinson a birthday celebration, and Jane Fonda shared a meal with Sally Discipline.
David and Victoria Beckham additionally used the mini oasis as a spot of reprieve whereas throwing a vacation occasion in the primary eating room for her clothes firm. When paparazzi flooded the streets to seize their exit, James got here to the rescue and drove them house himself.
“Victoria and David Beckham have been wrapping up their night time. It was time for them to depart. Sadly, they generated quite a lot of paparazzi and curiosity outdoors,” James recalled. “So I escorted them by way of the again entrance, by way of the non-public entrance into my automobile.”
James stated he drove the pair to their New York residence whereas their private chauffeur steered their automobile in the wrong way to thwart the shutterbugs.
“Escape methods should not an excessive amount of for the Golden Swan to deal with,” Abramcyk added.
