This is surely an odd piece of new. Graydon Carter—the celebrity-addled editor of Vanity Fair who's turned into every shallow, pompous person he every made fun of as the editor of Spy magazine—is mulling over taking on the basement space occupied by Fedora, the 60-year-old Greenwich village veteran bistro.
Eater reports on a rumor that Carter—who's been in the business of opening ritzy, exclusive restaurants/private clubs for himself and his fabu friends in the past few years—is "teaming up with hotel team Eric Goode and Sean MacPherson to take over the place. Lord knows if they did, it would be even more exclusive that Carter's The Waverly Inn and the Monkey Bar. Fedora's dining room is about the size of a postage stamp. Would he retain the rotary dial wooden phone booth?
Things seems iffy at present. MacPherson's people rold Eater that they are not involved in the space at all, but Carter's reps told Time Out "Graydon took a look at [Fedora] with Emil Varda from the Waverly, but he’s not sure what his plans are."
Fedora needs some sort of savior. Fedora Dorato herself is in her 90s. This place needs someone to carry on the torch. But does the successor have to be a unctuous windbag like Carter? He's the opposite of what Fedora has been to her faithful customers this last half century.
Ah yes, the Waverly Inn. I went there for lunch maybe 15 years ago and ordered the chicken pot pie. It looked and smelled delicious when it arrived, but since the filling was still FROZEN, I couldn't eat it. They must have forgotten to put it in the microwave before browning the crust under the broiler. Loved the historic ambience of the place but being served reheated frozen food ruined the experience. I hope Carter and his cronies have improved the food although given how difficult it is to get into the place I guess I'm unlikely to find out for myself.
ReplyDeleteThis poses the question.....which is better: a kind of cool place with mediocre food you can always eat at, or the same cool place with very good food you can never eat at??
On the other hand, there's not too many former speak-easy's in New York that still survive as a restaurant/bar. Closing Fedora's is a closing of a historical treasure trove where the owner makes the pies. And, actually, I've eaten there lots and the food was always great ... though, people like to complain about it. Too bad it can't go into the same world as Julius, different owner but it stays alive.
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