Studio Cafe at the Whitney

A truly COSMIC experience: Unlike the Museum itself, which seems to subscribe to «the
MORE IS MORE» philosophy, the Studio Café at the Whitney understands that «less is more.‘
I STUMBLED on the Café, after a great experience looking at the Motley exhibit and before
I went into psychedelic overload. The Menu is just PERFECT: i had ‘toast’ no, not your
basic slices of Challah burned to a crisp from my inexpert toasting skills, but GOURMET
’toast’ of artic char, SMOKED, celery root purée and red cabbage. I wanted to try
the meatloaf and kale combo, oh who am I kidding I wanted everything on the menu,
but time would not allow. The cappuccino was expertly brewed by Aaron and I had
a wonderful talk withJulie Travis, who is a first rate general manager of the Studio Café.
I KNOW how important it is to have someone overseeing a restaurant and who can
understand food, the Chef, presentation, etc. I was totally dumbfounded by the
excellence of the restaurant and did not know the Chef had recently won the James
Beard award, which is richly deserved. I can’t wait to go back. Just superb

Decently good food at museum café prices.
In the mood for a mid-​afternoon snack & recharge (taking in all that art is surprisingly hard work!), I ordered the toast & soup combo and a macchiato. The toast was a good-​sized portion (about the size of a slice from the midsection of a large, round loaf of bread), large enough to share if you like. Good, fresh-​baked multigrain bread, topped with potato, dill and smoked arctic char. The dill flavor was enjoyable, but the smoked char was very mild, not as flavorful as good smoked salmon. The potato was, in retrospect, an odd carb-​on-​carb choice of topping, but with the dill in there it worked. The soup was smoked tomato and pecorino, simple but good, and a good pairing for that particular toast.
The macchiato was also good, rich and strong without being bitter. At $ 6, a bit pricey for a single macchiato, but I guess they know you’re a captive audience.
Service was attentive, polite and friendly.
The toast & soup ($ 22), macchiato and a water ran to about $ 40 with tip, or about twice the price of the museum admission. Not bargain pricing, but pretty typical museum café pricing.

Lovely venue. Just don’t arrive here hungry. Portions are microscopic.
Excellent IPA and the overall feel of the place is modern and elegant. It’s just that you can spend a lot of money here and walk away ready for a meal. Must be some kind of unfortunate fashion in food. These are not «small plates», they are two-​bite plates.

I am adding 2 pictures to my review and I hope it helps picturing the mood of this incredible place, the view is magnificent and the food really tasty, I had a toast and a coconut soup that winter day and it really impressed me.