Russell Steinberg threw celebrity-packed parties for years. Now with his new bistro Cecilia, he’s bringing that buzzy, nightlife-infused energy to Saint Mark’s Place reports PETER DAVIS.
Keith McNally just published his memoir “I Regret Almost Everything,” written after he suffered a stroke. But the one thing McNally doesn’t regret is his massive restaurant empire—Balthazar, Pastis and Minetta Tavern, to name just a few. In the late 90s, McNally had Lucky Strike: a late-night brasserie in SoHo. I lived a few blocks away and remember sharing cigarettes and steak frites with Kate Moss one night way past midnight. Lucky Strike’s bartender was Russell Steinberg—already downtown famous for his lounge singer alter ego Johnny Fayva and for hosting karaoke parties where you’d hear Jimmy Fallon, Liv Tyler, Michael Stipe and Natasha Lyonne belt out rock anthems.
At 8pm at Cecilia, the buzzy new bistro on Saint Mark’s Place, Steinberg is seated in a studded green leather banquette he calls the Tony Bennett booth, table 41. “It makes you feel like a bigshot,” he explains. And chez Cecilia—like McNally at Balthazar—Steinberg is a big shot. “Lucky Strike and the old New York neighborhood spot was a big influence on me,” he says, biting into a wedge salad. “All credited to Keith McNally. I’m picking up that New York vibe from 23 years ago.” That “vibe” so far has attracted now-regulars Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, Sandra Bernhard, Marisa Tomei and Christian Louboutin. Ione Skye had her book party at Cecilia with friends Beck and Griffin Dunne.
Trendy restaurants usually die because of bad food. At Cecilia (named after Steinberg’s six-year-old daughter) the food is the star: even if Sam Rockwell is chomping a burger at the table next to you. Think comfort food—pure ingredients prepared with simple perfection from a juicy steak au poivre to roast vinegar chicken to salmon nicoise and a colossally good banana split. “The menu is delicious versions of things you know and love,” Steinberg says. “I’m not challenging people’s palate. I just want to make them happy.
“I come from entertainment. I’m always entertaining.”
Russell Steinberg
Steinberg also did the décor, which includes a batik painting of him as Johnny Fayva (think Vegas-era Elvis on stage at Don Hill’s) done by his daughter Antonia, whose mother is Tatiana von Furstenberg. “We picked the floor together and the mirrors were in my basement,” von Furstenberg tells me. “There are a lot of hidden easter eggs everywhere like a fake Basquiat painting and an old Xenon poster.” Steinberg’s daughter Cecilia goes to school next door. “Cecilia is friends with all the people that work here,” he says. “My daughter Antonia used to come to The Box when I performed there when she was seven. It’s always a family affair.”
It’s the East Village on a Thursday night and the crowd swells. A guy in a navy-blue suit and white Supreme sneakers talks to what looks like an off-duty model at the bar by the entrance. A group of twentysomething girls in Louboutin heels hoist martini glasses and snap selfies. Cecilia’s new soju cocktail menu, created by Hannah Hulsey, who Steinberg calls “The Alchemist,” have names like Material Girl (soju, cranberry and lime) and Mama’s Medicine (clarified apple soju, lemon and Amoro de Vino Apéro Ibérico).
The music, orchestrated by well-known NYC DJ Frankie Inglese, suddenly gets a little louder. Steinberg jostles through the young throng waiting to get a table. “When everyone leaves, you migrate down to Avenue A and it’s like Mardi Gras,” he says. “The whole street becomes pedestrian in the summer with a hundred people outside.” A couple stop him at the door to thank him for dinner. “I love my crowd,” he says with a big smile. “I’m just a guy who loves New York.”
CECILIA / 97 Saint Marks Place / 212-598-5852
