MR CHOW CONCEPT
April 5th, 2009The first MR CHOW opened in London on Valentine’s Day 1968 with top chefs serving authentic Beijing cuisine and with evolving creative original recipes over time.
42nd Anniversary Theater Menu 2010
February 8th, 201057th STREET & TRIBECA , NEW YORK
Pre & Post Theater Menu - $42
Classic signature dishes offered between 6:00 p.m.- 7:00 p.m. & after 10:00 p.m.
MR CHOW Valentines Day Menu 2010
February 8th, 2010BEVERLY HILLS
57th STREET , NEW YORK
TRIBECA , NEW YORK
MIAMI
DINA LA - MR CHOW BEVERLY HILLS
January 19th, 2010Dine LA
MR CHOW Beverly Hills
344 North Camden Drive
January 24th - January 29th
January 31st - February 5th
Lunch $28 per person for food only (Mon-Fri)
Dinner $44 per person for food only (Sun-Fri)
Drinks, Tax, and 20% service charge are additional
To make reservations call 310 . 278 . 9911
NEW YORK RESTAURANT WEEK - MR CHOW 57th STREET
January 19th, 2010New York Restaurant Week
MR CHOW 57th Street
324 E. 57th Street
January 25th - February 28th (not including Valentine’s Day)
$35 per person for Food Only
Drinks, Tax, and 20% service charge are additional
To make reservations call 212 . 751 . 9030
NEW YORK RESTAURANT WEEK - MR CHOW TRIBECA
January 19th, 2010New York Restaurant Week
MR CHOW Tribeca
121 Hudson Street
January 25th - February 28th (not including Valentine’s Day)
$35 per person for Food Only
Drinks, Tax, and 20% service charge are additional
To make reservations call 212.965.9500
MR CHOW NEW YEARS EVE MENU 2009
December 18th, 2009MR CHOW Beverly Hills
MR CHOW Tribeca, New York
MR CHOW 57th Street, New York
MR CHOW RESTAURANT CELEBRATES 30 YEARS 57th Street, NEW YORK
December 8th, 2009MR CHOW Restaurant celebrates 30 years on New York’s 57th Street with a champagne celebration through December 15th.
The Manhattan staple, known for its exceptional cuisine and high-profile celebrity, art and fashion crowd, will show their appreciation to their devoted clients by presenting a complimentary bottle of Laurent Perrier Rosé champagne to each table.
DINA LA WEEK
November 25th, 2009VOGUE - Overheard: What To See and Do at Art Basel in Miami
November 25th, 2009
What time is your flight to Miami? Is it Wednesday night? Are you going to make it in time for the opening of “Happy Endings,” the show Vito Schnabel put together for the Bruce High Quality Foundation in the ballroom of the W South Beach (pool area pictured above) ? Word is that there’s also going to be a special post-exhibit BBQ and party with Theo Wenner deejaying. “I think it’s great that Aby [Rosen] and the W are enthusiastic about working with younger artists,” says Schnabel. “I think people don’t know exactly who they are or what they are, and I’m excited to put their work to the name,” he says of the foundation. “It’s a lot of people, not one artist. For example, it could be four people who come up with the idea and 60 people who install the show. They have interesting momentum around them. I’m excited to share them with everyone else.” We can’t wait.
We also want to peek at the works Rosen’s lent to the W, such as George Condo’s “Untitled (Sir Alfred Chipmunk) from 1996 (above) and Damien Hirst’s Zinc Sulfinate (2002). “The juxtaposition is much more interesting, and it’s appropriate to the economic climate,” says Rosen of having Schnabel’s installation near pieces from his private collection.”
Missed the earlier flight? Schnabel’s show is open late if you want to come by another night. Arrival time aside, maybe you’re already booked Wednesday for Larry Gagosian’s private affair at the Mr. Chow.? The two are close by, no? You may just find yourself at the W (again) on Thursday for Aby Rosen, Peter Brant, and Alberto Mugrabi’s private dinner at Solea. Late night, Vito Schnabel, Alex Dellal, and Stavros Niarchos will host the afterparty at Wall.
Rumor has it that Peter Dundas will be at beloved emporium the Webster for an intimate dinner, as well. You just might sleep over and hang out with always stylish Webster co-owner Laure Heriard Dubreuil, because Viktor & Rolf’s cocktail and dinner is there at Caviar Kaspia on Friday.
That night, there is also a cocktail, dinner, and after-party at Casa Tua hosted by Moncler’s Remo Ruffini in honor of Pharrell Williams and the special-edition vests he designed for the house—plus a book party for Bruce Weber at the Standard.
Meanwhile, at the hotel pool (pictured above), there will be a concert by Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols. Don’t stay out too late, though, as Saturday night is the Webster’s cocktail in honor of Joseph Altuzarra. We also hear word of Le Baron every night at Delano’s Florida Room for after-parties . . . also the rooftop and Louis at the Gansevoort.
Of course, it’s never just about the events, but also enjoying the city. All the girls love Joe’s Stone Crab (this week’s It girl, Danielle Corona, likes to ride her bike there) and Nobu at the Shore Club—to name a few. For going out? Wall at the W and Bardot in the Design District. Need some shopping? For furniture, Glo, Stripe, and Gustavo Olivieri Antiques (“It has the most amazing furniture,” says Miami regular Azie Fritz) and C. Madeleine is a must for vintage. Everyone loves Tomas Maier, and—it goes without saying—the Webster.
—Stephanie LaCava
VANITY FAIR - 30th ANNIVERSARY MR CHOW 57th STREET , NEW YORK
November 16th, 2009PHOTOS BY PATRICK McMULLAN
One night last week, if you’d found yourself on the eastern end of 57th Street in Manhattan, become intrigued by a few serious-looking paparazzi at the entrance of Mr. Chow, and bluffed your way past two women with clipboards, you might have been able to figure out what you’d gotten yourself into—the 30th-anniversary party for the restaurant—with just a little deduction. Your first clue could have been the disco-heavy D.J.’ing (Ring My Bell, Electric Avenue) or the period details (pinky rings, unbuttoned shirts, dyed bobs) of more than a few male guests. Or it could have come from a quick architectural scan.
Part of Michael Chow’s mini-chain of Chinese restaurants, the 57th Street branch looks like a perfect specimen of splashy late-70s décor. The split-level space is laid out like a compact dance club, designed for drama and people watching. On the ground floor, at the bottom of a wide, ego-building flight of stairs, sits a mirrored and lacquered dining room, which is edged by black banquettes. Perched at street level is a dark alcove bar, decorated with a large, klieg-light-like lamp and a vase of lilies. But if, the other night, you still weren’t sure what you were doing there, you could have headed to a cluster of little black doors and entered the one to the ladies’ room to observe a flashy marble coffee table and a huge chunk of display quartz. Or you could have followed Michael Chow, as I did, behind another black door to the quiet of a cramped utility closet.
There, wearing a peach-colored corduroy suit and his usual black, thick-rimmed round glasses, Chow seated himself on an overturned bucket to discuss the history and philosophies of the dining room. “When we first opened, 30 years ago,” he began, “I think Hubert Givenchy said, ‘Oh, this is like a jewelry box.’ The [Mr. Chow] we just opened in South Beach, three months ago, that’s a huge restaurant. Very, very beautiful. We have a chandelier in there like 125 feet. But when we first opened [in New York], this was adequate. It was in a sort of off-beat location, between Second and First [Avenues], a destination. No one is passing by. At lunchtime, there’s no one here. Well, I want them to come to me.”
Buoyed in the beginning by the reputation of the first Mr. Chow, which opened in London in 1968, the 57th Street location has attracted several waves of clientele, but it’s best known for a heyday in the 80s. “It started with fashion,” Chow said, “then evolved to one of the great art scenes, with Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, all the names—Julian Schnabel, Keith Haring, et cetera. Then, the [90s were] all the rap music, all the hip-hop, they all came.
“The people in our restaurant, they really love it. But generally speaking—I can guarantee you—all children love it. First of all, they like the space, it’s very harmonious. And also the food is very true, not exaggerated [or] over-designed. You need harmony, you know, so you can come back to eating it all the time. So you get addicted. Think about tomorrow, think about the future. I left China when I was very young, and I always wanted to make Chinese people and Chinese culture—which I feel is the greatest in the world—respected, to perfect it, and I’ve sort of made myself self-appointed ambassador. At the moment, you have Nobu representing Japan, you have Cipriani representing Italy, and Jean-Georges representing France, and Mr. Chow, internationally speaking, representing China.”
Back outside the closet, things were functioning relatively harmoniously. Some of the older partygoers had begun to dance to the disco, and waiters circulated trays with simple piles of unexaggerated appetizers (fried lumps of lobster, condiment-less potstickers, shrimp toast, and Mr. Chow’s famous orange-colored skewered chicken with peanut sauce). There were a few glimmers of late-70s decadence—some gender transgression, when a man stormed into the ladies’ room and used it (to the revulsion of socialite Olivia Palermo)—and of 80s glamour, in the form of Brooke Shields and Cindy Adams. Bill Cunningham, The New York Times’s longtime fashion photographer, took pictures, with film. But most of the restaurant’s famous regulars failed to show up for the reunion.
It was the young guests, such as Terence Koh (an artist known for, among other things, gilding his excrement) and fashion designers Thakoon Panichgul and Erin Fetherston, who added some old-time edge. And a few of them, it turned out, also had some history with the restaurant. “I haven’t been to this location, but I’ve been a lot in Tribeca and Los Angeles,” said Fetherston, who’s a friend of China Chow, Michael’s daughter. “China is such a sweetheart. Of course everyone in the restaurant knows her, and we get the most amazing dining experience. Oh my god! China knows how to order everything. But that Peking duck is incredible.”
Actress Mischa Barton, wearing a floor-length, 70s-style floral dress, was another long-time Mr. Chow enthusiast. “I love this place,” she said. “When I was growing up, [I’d go to] this location. Now that I’m older, I live right near the other one, downtown. I love the chicken lettuce cups and the seaweed salad and the chicken sticks with peanut sauce, and, like, everything. I get everything. You have no idea. It’s an obsession! I dream about the chicken lettuce cups. I dream about the chicken sticks. It’s crazy. I get a craving for it.”