“We’re charging into September with Fashion Week, parties and the city coming back to life.” – Alex Pincus
The Pincus brothers at The Yacht Club, their newest venture
The Yacht Club, which just opened in Chelsea, is where you’ll live this summer reports JANET MERCEL
After a 90 degree day, a wild thunderstorm breaks the heatwave. Then suddenly a riotous sunset beams through pink clouds over Manhattan revealing one of the best views in the city. It’s the first night of the Pincus brother’s newest venture: a massive rooftop spread atop the Starrett-Lehigh Building. While nautical restaurants (Grand Banks, Pilot, Holywater) have been redefining New York’s waterfront seafood dining for years, this is the most ambitious yet.
“The first week at The Yacht Club has been a rollercoaster – exhilarating, emotional and full of discovery,” says Alex Pincus, a trained architect. “I’m completely in love with this restaurant and I’m pushing on all fronts to make it as incredible as it can be.”
Instead of being housed on one of their signature refurbished watercraft, The Yacht Club is on dry land. The glass doors on 12th Avenue are reminiscent of the old Rusty Knot’s improbable entrance, but there’s no dive bar behind these doors. Instead, an elevator in the office-like vestibule whisks you to the 10th floor, opening onto an expansive open-air space more typical of Los Angeles than New York. Arriving at golden hour means taking it all in at peak perfection. Where else in the city (with or without a membership) can you wander 20,000 square feet and multiple levels of astroturfed Lido Deck, park yourself in a cabana, and lounge all day—or all night?
The timing of the opening is a gift, Pincus explains. “We caught the tail end of summer, and now we’re charging into September with Fashion Week, parties and the city coming back to life. Our early guests have been from fashion, media and hospitality and the energy is already electric.”
The restaurant is delightfully elegant…yachtlike. Warehouse windows showcase the Hudson from every angle and from atop the staircase, you can easily imagine making a grand entrance aboard the QE2. A walnut paneled bar happily transports you to Cipriani’s Harry’s Bar in Venice, never a bad thing. Parties of diners, dressed in summer whites, tuck into raw bar towers and lobster rolls topped with caviar. Couples in plush circular banquettes tuck into each other. The cheerful staff sports jaunty neck kerchiefs and Breton stripes. Actors Christopher Meloni and Jesse Tyler Ferguson have been spotted. “There’s been a lot to learn,” Pincus confesses, “How the space flows, where guests gravitate, fine-tuning our food, drinks and service to match the potential of the space. We’ve built something really special and now we’re learning how to sail it, like a freshly launched America’s Cup contender.”
I sip sharp, crisp Soave and my husband Daniel nurses his white Negroni until our oysters arrive—the Sailor Baby exclusive, a custom-grown variety from Great Peconic Bay. (The restaurant group has long partnered with the Billion Oyster Project, the marine restoration mission.) I’m thrilled by our “Yacht Tots” which sound lowbrow but are decidedly not—mini potatoes with steelhead roe and crème fraîche. After the heirloom tomatoes, the star arrives: Lobster Frites, a whole charbroiled lobster split over a golden pile of fries. We dive in, cracking legs and splitting tails with our fingers, mostly abandoning our lobster forks.
When we reluctantly make our way out, the barges on the Hudson are glowing and so is the dining room and deck outside. The whole thing is over-sized, ambitious and fun. “We all believe in this and we all want it to thrive,” Pincus says. “Sometimes I can’t believe it’s real.”
