Arrive Magazine - September, 2012

much lighter than you’d find in most
restaurants. It’s primarily salads, clams,
oysters on the half shell, carpaccios,
sashimis, brothy soups and grilled fish
with seasonal vegetables.”
“When you sit at the bar and look up,
it’s kind of mesmerizing,” says Alex von
Bidder, who since 1975 has commanded
the dining room as managing partner
of the restaurant. “The Lexington
Avenue subway trains cause the rods
to vibrate and the sun reflects off the
other buildings and makes the rods
sparkle and glow. After two martinis,
it’s really mesmerizing.”
Von Bidder is referring to the Richard
Lippold sculpture of 5,000 metal alloy
rods that hang over the bar of his restau-
rant. Each rod is suspended from a wire,

“Everything that
was placed in the
restaurant then is
still there now. Part
function, part art.
Many of the pieces
are also part of the
permanent collection
of the Museum of
Modern Art.”

which forms its own geometric pattern.

Its sister piece hangs over the balcony.

The Lippold pieces are just two of the more talked-about and well-known works of art housed within the walls of the restaurant.

Then there’s the Picasso. What appears to be a tapestry is actually a theatrical curtain originally created for the 1919 Ballet Russes production of The Three-Cornered Hat.

“It hangs in the passageway to the dining room; we call it ‘Picasso Alley.’ It now belongs to the New York Landmark Conservancy. It’s like a favorite uncle who is always there, who sits in the corner,” von Bidder says.