Upstairs from Daniel Humm’s grandiose three-starred Eleven Madison Park, a new space offers a more intimate atmosphere alongside a selection of world-class art.
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Daniel Humm isn’t afraid of change. In fact, he chases it, almost to a fault. It’s why he turned his world-renowned, highly decorated restaurant Eleven Madison Park into a food kitchen at the height of Covid and, in 2021, to much fanfare, switched to a totally plant-based menu.
“That’s the big question: Why do I need to change it if it’s working?” Humm wonders with a sheepish grin. But change is very much in the DNA of Eleven Madison Park. “What is most interesting to me,” he adds, “is the moment of transition. Who is the first one to do something, and what are the gestures that go into being the first?” His latest move is less of an all-out change than it is an expansion.
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This fall, chef and team are opening Clemente Bar, a more relaxed offshoot of his fine-dining establishment just below it, named after his dear friend, the Italian Neo-Expressionist Francesco Clemente. At just under 1,000 square-feet, the intimate space consists of two concepts: a counter and its corresponding bar. The former will offer a five-course, prix fixe service while the latter will focus on cocktails, overseen by Eleven Madison Park’s longtime beverage director Sebastian Tollius. “We always knew we had to break the mold, a little,” Humm says. “This is our way of showing a different side, one that’s cool, that’s more accessible.”
The experience will be more casual, the chef describes, which may shock his loyal following. “I hope that it will attract a new audience, but people who are familiar with us will enjoy this experience, too,” he says. The menu will follow the contours of his signature style, focusing on seasonal ingredients, rigorous technique, and creative flair.
The relationship between food and art comes up often if you talk to Humm long enough. He tells the story of being moved to tears at 10 years old when his parents brought him to Paris’ Musée de l’Orangerie to see Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies” paintings. This connection has heavily influenced Eleven Madison Park’s interior design, which features work from artists Sol LeWitt, Rita Ackermann, and Rashid Johnson, among others. The theme continues upstairs, where Clemente has painted custom frescoes onto the bar, stairwell, and rotunda ceiling. “It’s one of the best paintings he’s made in a long time,” Humm says of the 72-year-old artist’s handiwork across the interior.
“The only way to work with artists,” the chef continues, “is to give them carte blanche.” To that point, guests can expect quixotic works from Clemente, including a surreal scene rendered in gold and burgundy and another, dreamier one of lovers and waves. Expect to spot this imagery in various locations around the room, behind the bar, and wrapping the bar itself.
It is this ineffable, electric charge of humanity that Humm fantasizes about most as he pictures the new space when it is open. “The magic of a restaurant or a bar is the
people that work there and the people that come to enjoy it. We want to make sure all the elements come together, but it’s when there are interesting people in the room, and they’re talking...that’s my dream.”
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